Not as great as you've heard

Rating: 7/10 (3 November 2007)

When I first saw this film at the cinema I was, like everyone else in the world, blown away by the opening scenes and then mostly entranced by what followed. Upon re-watching it these years later, the overall effect has been lessened by familiarity and, possibly, by being Speilberged out after watching Munich last week! The battle scenes are still excellent  visceral, terrifying and all too real  conveying the calamitous confusion of war in a way seldom matched in the movies. When the action slows down, so does the film, and this often leaves you feeling a little disinterested as the characters lack of back-story and overly obvious attempts at making them look good (Woo! I've saved a child! Boo! I've been shot!) seem to jar with the realism attained elsewhere. It's still a cracking film though, and the weaker bits have actually stood up better than the strong bits in my opinion (although maybe I'm just more tolerant of schmaltz as I get older).