Should have been a masterpiece

Rating: 4/10 (31 January 2000)

Despite the brilliance of the war-scenes, and they are truly amazing, this movie still has too many "Spielberg"- moments. For me, the film is stylistically schizophrenic, he should have used the documentary-style all the way through. Now he falls between two chairs, making the movie feel disjointed and unbalanced. What irritates me is that he could and should have been more consistent in tone, he of all directors certainly could afford more experimentation. Now it has moments of genius, and moments of cheesy standard Spielberg-sentimentality, and a paradoxical pro-war message: war makes you grow as a person. Very good performances (but a questionable Matt Damon) and striking photography and sound, but unfortunately not as good as it should have been.