Good, but by no means the greatest war movie ever (or even of the decade, or the year, for that matter)

Rating: 4/10 (16 August 1999)

Perhaps having viewed this film at the cinema a couple of weeks after its debut tainted my expectations about 'Saving Private Ryan'. Perhaps the immense amount of hype precluding and following its release built the movie up just a little too much. Whatever the reason, I must admit that I found 'Saving Private Ryan' just a little tedious and pretentious. Don't get me wrong here, there's no genre of movie that I enjoy more than the good old [anti]war. 'Platoon', 'Apocalypse Now', 'Full Metal Jacket', 'All Quiet on the Western Front', '1918: Westfront', 'Stalingrad' and 'Das Boot' (all German productions) are among my all time favorite movies. I like a good, harsh, realistic war movie. And being a product of the electronic generation I can even sit through 'A Clockwork Orange' without even flinching, so the 'realistic' first 25 minutes of 'Saving Private Ryan' was just like water off a ducks back, to use the cliche.
What really got to me about this movie was the element of compromise that marred 'Saving Private Ryan'. The introductory shot displaying that oh so wonderful 'stars and stripes' waving in the breeze. Perhaps it was national pride that caused the Second World War? Unforgivable. The return of this shot at the as yet far away conclusion of the film did little to appease my growing sense of ridicule at the film.
However, on a positive note that famous first 25 minutes was a fairly fine piece of cinema. Fast, well coordinated, well coloured (not that I really know what I'm talking about here). But after such a fine beginning Speilburg simply cannot stop the movie slipping downhill from here. I got the impression that 'Saving Private Ryan' was two hours of relative nothing buffered by 20 minutes of pro-Yankee violence at each end. And, I'm sad to say, that is how the war came across. The Germans were still faceless, nameless enemies. Nazi's. The German film 'Stalingrad' (which I believe does the whole war thing far better than this effort) gives an excellent insight into the German side of things.
So, in brief:
* Far too patriotic for a modern day war film
* Emptiness in between introduction and conclusion (totaling 2 hours)
Still was above average though. But 'Saving Private Ryan' is by no means the greatest war film ever. There are many films which do the whole war thing much more sensitively, poetically, chaotically, brutally, realistically, bluntly, subtly. The greatest criticism I have for 'Saving Private Ryan' is that I didn't leave the cinema hating humanity for what it put all those involved in the war through, and showing what humanity was capable of. Which other movies do. It would appear that Spielberg decided against this perhaps for fear of diminishing his American audience, who might not have flocked to his movie in mainstream numbers if it were to put forward any message that suggested that ALL involved in wars are victims, not just the Americans.