No No No

Rating: 2/10 (22 December 2001)

This movie starts and ends with shots of the American flag which points to one of its biggest problems. It purports to be an anti war film but this rubbish. While it may show the horrors of war in graphic detail, it ultimately is a celebration of militarism and heroism. Sure, heroism doesn't mean it's a pro-war movie but this movie goes beyond that. It's little surprise that the military are among the biggest fans of this movie. It may not celebrate war as a something good, but then, I can't think of any film that does outside of propaganda movies. If you want an anti war movie that shows heroism and mateship without celebrating the military, watch "All Quiet on the Western Front".
It does follow the standard American war movie characterisation rather faithfully. The Germans are universally evil, other nations are either non-existent, villains or locals who get saved by the Americans. Well in this case it is not that far from the truth, without the Americans the war would have gone on much longer than it did and the Germans were villains. But all these facts are distorted and stereotyped in a bad way here. For example, the only German with a sizeable speaking role turns out to be a total coward and backstabber who repays the Americans who saved his life by shooting them.
There are a couple of good points to the movie though. It does deviate somewhat from the standard US heroic movies in that it shows that Americans committed war crimes too, like shooting soldiers who had already surrendered. There are also some quite powerful scenes that are as good as any Spielberg has done. Best among them is the scene where a father in a French village tries to pass his daughter to one of the soldiers to save her. This single scene can probably verify this movie's claim to show the horrors of war somewhat. The landing in the Normandy is good, although somewhat overrated. I wasn't there so I can't comment on the realism but it felt like this was close to what it was really like.
Many people were upset that the movie only shows Americans fighting the Germans, but for once, this is not really a valid argument since the various armies fought in different areas and would have had very little contact amongst each other.
The movie really goes downhill towards the end though when the troop actually find Ryan. Instead of being glad to be out of this hell, he wants to stay there to help out his comrades. Very anti war indeed. This is where the movie turns totally Hollywood and looses all claim it may have had to a somewhat realistic portrayal. A number of people had died already in trying to find Ryan and his decision to stay there costs another couple of people their lifes yet the movie makes him a total hero for it. Steven Spielberg is capable of making great movies, this isn't one of them.
The acting is not particularly good and leaves out no cliches. Tom Hanks was actually nominated for an Academy Award for a role that Pee Wee Herman could have played better.
Finally, the salutation scene in the end is totally stomach churning.