So near, yet so far.

Rating: 5/10 (24 September 1998)

After all the hype it is fair to say that the first 25 minutes are the finest, most brutal depiction of warfare the screen has seen yet. It is also clear that after years of having the ridiculous notion of war as cool thrust down our throats, such a horrifying depiction in a genuinely mainstream picture was needed. However after such a dazzlingly brilliant start, when the story kicks in we find Spielberg merely trotting out the old clichés we've seen so many times before. Again we're told how glorious, noble and almost desirable it is to die for our country, how the Germans were little more than cartoon villains, and most sickeningly, through the character of the young interpreter, how the correct response to the horrors of war is to lose your innocent disbelief that this could happen and join in. What makes this so sad is the fact that in the accurate depiction of the battles Spielberg has already shown how hollow these notions are. Death in war is as empty and disgusting as any other painful, violent death; at the level of the ordinary soldier the Allies were as scared and selfish as the Germans; and surely the reaction of the interpreter, as he lay sobbing on the battlefield, out of his mind with fear, is the most honest and sane reaction to mass slaughter one could have.