Good, but overrated and aggravating

Rating: 7/10 (13 March 2000)

I feel compelled to finally say something about this film. I saw it in the theaters when it first came out, and rented on video. I'll admit it was good, but to call it the greatest war movie ever made is a major overstatement.
First of all, didn't anyone notice how badly Spielberg ripped off Kurosawa? That alone I found rather disappointing.
Second, the blatant and heavy handed symbolism. Come on, we just watched people get blown to bits, do we really need to stare at an American flag? Is the American public so dense they couldn't get it?
Third, okay I realize Private Ryan was a *symbol*, but WWII was real. To say that after filming some very intense, real images of war we need a symbol to understand what all those millions of people died for? Was the military so lax the day after D-Day that they could waste their time tracking down some young kid to make mommy feel better? Why not ship the whole army back home and forget about Europe?
When you get right down to it, SPR is nothing more than a feel good Disney-fied version of war. There are many of fine, outstanding films about war, All Quiet on the Western Front, Platoon, The Thin Red Line, Escape from Sobibor, Ran, Apocalypse Now. Heck, Apocalypse Now was full of symbolism, but it didn't hide behind the pretense of realism.