Well-made and interesting, but *far* from a masterpiece

Rating: 6/10 (9 July 1999)

"Saving Private Ryan" has several very intense and touching scenes. The first half hour is, for instance, a movie classic already. However, having not seen this movie on the big screen I guess I don't look upon these thirty minutes the way many other people do. For me they are only intense -- like so many scenes in so many films.
On the whole, "Saving Private Ryan" is far from a masterpiece. It is very well-made and rather interesting, but not much more. I still enjoyed it though, even if I think "Glory" and a few other films are much better war movies.
And as for the Academy Awards this year, I consider it to be a scandal that "Shakespeare in Love" won the Best Picture award, SPR is at least somewhat better than that film, it's just as strange as the fact that Edward Norton didn't win the Best Actor award.
So, this film is far from a masterpiece, but I still appreciate the fact that SPR is well-made and interesting.