Very Overrated

Rating: 6/10 (10 December 2005)

Yes, "Saving Private Ryan" has very graphic action scenes which are more realistic than the average war movie, but there are other aspects in which it fails in being authentic: the attitudes, behaviors and values of the people in the time period which the movie depicts. In particular, some of the major and minor characters of "S.P.R." exhibit very self-absorbed characteristics which would have been very uncommon among regular troops during World War II. Sure, people have some of the same feelings and other characteristics throughout history, and soldiers frequently grumble and are cynical, but the people shown in this movie tend to reflect much more what 1990's guys were like rather than 1940's men. For a war movie which does a better job of showing 1940's troops, try "Battleground."
Like many others here, I like war movies to be authentic in depicting things like uniforms, equipment and tactics, and "S.P.R." is successful in some of this, but to me it is more important for a movie to be accurate in depicting character, attitude and the actual events that occurred, and in this "S.P.R" is very lacking. It does a better job of demonstrating Spielberg's 1990's limousine-liberal biases. This is especially seen in the character depictions. Another kind of example which is comparatively minor is how the German troops' haircuts in "S.P.R." tend to look more like those of late-20th Century skinheads than what German SS and Wehrmacht troops usually wore.
Also, I think that the reviewer James Bowman makes a good point about movies such as "S.P.R." and "Flags of Our Fathers:" "...perhaps showing too much respect for the suffering is not to show enough respect for the man. For if we suppose, as some of us still do, that these men suffered for something  to wit, their duty, their honor, their country  don't these thing deserve just a little bit of respect as well?..."
To get an idea of what the Normandy Campaign was like, you would be much better off reading non-fiction accounts of it, and listening to comments by actual men who were there. It takes much more than gushing blood, flying body parts and the message "War is hell" to constitute a great war film. If you want to see cinematic movies which do a better job than "S.P.R." of depicting some of the general look and feel of war, and the characters and attitudes of people of the World War II period, try "Talvisota" and "Der Untergang." Also, "A Bridge Too Far" is very good, especially for a blockbuster-type movie. "A Bridge Too Far" has a few very minor inaccuracies, some composite characters and some simplifications of the real events, but it does an excellent job of showing the characters of troops and civilians, and it is mostly factual. "The Longest Day," while it includes some Hollywood flourishes, also is very good. It doesn't have the special effects and combat realism of "S.P.R.," but it is almost completely based on facts, which counts for a lot with me, and for which I rank it much higher than "S.P.R." "The Longest Day" also has one of the most impressive large-scale depictions of combat in any movie, showing the storming of a German position by a Free French unit.