A great film that has suffered from backlash (and pretentious reviews here)

Rating: Null/10 (9 June 2001)

Warning spoiler alert!

You can't fault one for claiming that every thing that occurs after the tumultuous D-Day scene in Saving Private Ryan is anticlimactic. True one supposes, but not really apposite. The remainder of this Spielberg tour de force would have made an exceptional film, but the opening sequence must truly be judged sui generis.

That particular maelstrom on the Omaha beach is as impressive a display of controlling disorder as any in filmmaking. The obstreperous milieu, the frenetic panic (adroitly interspersed with slow motion to show the effect of the fulmination), and the recherché violence (to the point where many vets have claimed that the auteur went beyond the actual level of blood and gore) are all here in sobering collusion and detail.

The rest of the film is still well worth viewing, it simply cannot carry the same weight in motion picture achievement that the D-Day beginning does. The plot and dialogue are good and the acting is well done (no standout performances, the historical background is the star). Also several scenes are striking: General Marshall's eloquent reading of President Lincoln's letter, the mother losing her strength on the porch as she meets the announcers of her children's demise, the morphing of the young Ryan into the older man. It is a fantastic picture overall, but just doesn't seem to reach the epic standard of, say Braveheart, that it seems to be reaching for.