If anything, it's UNDERestimated

Rating: 9/10 (14 March 1999)

Saving Private Ryan, with all respect to The Deer Hunter and Platoon, IS the greatest war film there ever was, and probably ever will be. Many people, especially in this website, criticize the film for its many "flaws" like story structure, violence and nationalism. First of all, this film was intended to be a dramatic portrayal of war, but its brilliant realism made it seem almost like a documentary in some ways-----and people criticized the film for this. Well, isn't that the point of cinema, to make something on a screen seem real? Apparently, some people on this website don't think so. As for the extreme-violence, HELLO, this was a war film, and war is violent. Another general criticism of this film was its dull, and unrealstic plot. Whoever said that this film's premise was unrealsitic should have done some research since the whole plot is based on a true story of a platoon that was sent to save a soldier whose brothers were lost in WWII. And finally, the person that criticized the film for having too much nationalism was just trying to attack the film for the opening and closing scenes with the American flag blowing in the wind. Those scenes were not there to imply nationalism----they were actually there to say that the country's involvement in WWII is what was honorable. Get it....the flag was waving from the beginning of the war to the end, i.e, fighting the war was something we should be proud of. You want a film that was absurdly nationalistic---how about "Bridge on the River Kwai," a film where the soldiers were so determined to give their nation a good name that they built a bridge to help the army that had captured them.