A turn in the war movie history, but...

Rating: Null/10 (7 November 2013)

Yes, this is a great war film, and, as I have already said before, again and again, there will be a BEFORE and AFTER SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, speaking of visual grammar, hard boiled and realistic at the most battle sequences. Any movie made after this feature, any movie around the world: Russian, Korean, British, any movie was inspired by this one. But besides this side PRIVATE RYAN remains very classical in the meaning. You find here the good US soldiers vs the ugly German ones. OK, US troopers saved us, the french, but in war there is not good soldiers and evil ones. The scheme is more complex. I prefer the TV show made several years after PRIVATE RYAN: BAND OF BROTHERS, more accurate in the meaning, where we watch for instance GI's shooting German soldiers who surrender. In PRIVATE RYAN, we don't see this, as far as I remember. Even just after the "meat chopper" Utah Beach landing, when only one percent of US troopers reached the "beach hotel", I don't remember a sequence where those same soldiers shoot German ones who surrender. And this actually happened. Anyone who survived the Omaha Beach hell would have done the same. And me first!!
Althoug some days after, in the middle of the woodland fights, in the deep Normandy countryside, the same scene would not have been less understandable. In resume, PRIVATE RYAN remains a great film, but I prefer THE VICTORS, a very different movie, yes. But that's the way it is.