You win some, you lose some.

Rating: Null/10 (9 February 1999)

"Saving Private Ryan" is an interesting film. As far as basis in fact goes, this movie rests on the truthful scale somewhere between "Titanic" and "Star Wars". About the only thing Spielberg got right was the fact that there was a war going on at the time. He owes both the Niland and Sullivan families very sincere apologies for butchering what he originally claimed was "their true story".
I had a harder time judging this movie on a reality scale. In some ways, the movie was very gripping and realistic, but in other ways, Spielberg failed miserably. In Spielberg's WWII, there were two groups of people. The horrible, murdering Nazis, and the good ol' boys of the US. I may be biased because I currently reside in Canada, but I know that there were probably just as many Canadian (not to mention British and others) troops roaming around during WWII. I admit they did do a tolerable job on the WWII ambience, but did very poorly on creating a realistic military environment.
Saving Private Ryan was a good movie, and well worth every penny it cost to see eight times in the theater (eight different groups of friends), but I wouldn't laud it as a fabulous war film, nor would I use it to teach military history, as some schools are considering doing. There were two things that really hurt the movie; 1) Spielberg's Hollywoodization of the film and his insistance on hiring over-aged big-name actors; 2) Spielberg's insistance (until recently) that Saving Private Ryan was a "true story". Spielberg would have done better hiring some relatively unknowns and making clear the film was fiction. It may have just been me, but seeing Matt Damon as Private Ryan made me wish they had just left him there. Matt Damon was the Hollywood heart-throb after "Good Will Hunting", and it was so obvious it was Spielberg's way of pulling in the teen crowd. I was surprised he didn't hire the DiCaprio boy.
"Saving Private Ryan" wasn't the best film of the year, but it was by no means the worst. I recommend it to anyone over 18 who is looking for an entertaining, hard-hitting way to pass three hours. The scenes on the beach really are well done and excellently written (makes it easy to overlook the mistakes), and while the movie does drag at times, it's worth taking a look-see. I would not suggest allowing children to see this movie, because many of the scenes are highly graphical and highly disturbing. I have no plans on letting my children see this film until they're old enough to understand that film isn't reality, and that Saving Private Ryan is just as fictional as most war films ("G. I. Jane", "Courage Under Fire", etc). If military films are a real interest, I would suggest either adaptation of "The Thin Red Line". It is more realistic than "Saving Private Ryan", and as opposed to the fictional Saving Private Ryan, "The Thin Red Line" has a high basis in fact.