The jingoism that causes wars

Rating: Null/10 (28 September 2003)

Don't get me wrong. The first 20 minutes of the film were both visually
SPOILERS WITHIN
stunning and physically sickening. If I had ever held any foolish notions of the supposed bravado and glory of war, they quickly evaporated in a hail of gunfire, blood, brains and severed limbs. This short section of the film, with its cinema verite like hand held camera and grainy, newsreel-esque cinematography, is evidence of the calibre (no pun intended) of filmmaker that Spielberg could be.
The rest of the film (God knows how long it is) seems to be Spielberg's valiant attempt to ruin the effect of the first sequence. Mothers cry, villains are smoten, good guys manage to fit in a final, heartfelt sentence or two before they croak and Tom Hanks manages to keep the same deadpan, "this-is-the-demure-face-I-get-paid-$20million-a-movie-for" expression on his face throughout the whole film. And as if to rub salt in the wound, there is the final, disgracefully jingoistic image of the film (you know the one I'm talking about).
I wouldn't be so outraged at this pro- American big-budget moneymaker if it didn't pretend to be an anti-war masterpiece.