A masterpiece ripped apart and stitched together...

Rating: 8/10 (24 November 1998)

...in a way that only Spielberg could. Really, if the man wants to be realistic, you can expect reality. Nothing in recent memory can surpass the impact of that beach landing carnage. It's the hideous, laughing face of War personified, and seeing that is the most disturbing aspect of this film.
Unfortunately, I have to agree that the work as a whole seemed flawed. To put it bluntly, it's a story reminiscent of an episode of Combat (now that someone brought it up), plus some movie-scale battle scenes. All bound by that flashback structure. It all held together all right, but just a tad less satisfactorily. It's painfully (yet distantly) similar to what Titanic suffered from.
Nonetheless high production values, all-round good performances, and an undeniable capacity to put you "right there" in the middle of the action (the apprehension was almost unbearable during the early moments of the final battle) far outweigh the gripes. Heck I still ended up giving it an 8/10. That's a "Go watch it!" rating.