Not worthless but still quite overrated

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 1999)

The film means well, and for the first half hour is indeed riveting, but is done in due to Spielberg's clumsiness. In time, the battle scenes begin to simply play out like a video game. And why the triumphant music when Jeremy Davies kills the German soldier? Is Spielberg trying to declare all Germans to be pond scum and deserving of death? Probably not, but it's poorly directed and ambiguous. And regardless of the absurdly jingoistic sentiments of some of my fellow countrymen here (which are not worth responding to), the US flag at the end was tacky and implied American superiority. Even my great-uncle, a proud WWII veteran, agreed that this was unnecessary. Spielberg may have meant to shown the true hell that war is, but he has inadvertently made a pro-war film. American entry in WWII was inevitable and necessary, but it's nothing to celebrate.