An average movie saved by some great direction

Rating: 7/10 (28 October 1998)

Now I know that I am in the minority, but I left "Saving Private Ryan" extremely disappointed. I loved the first half hour and the last half hour, but the remaining two hours was a drawn out generic film with poor character development and a throw-away plot. The only character who evoked any emotion was Jeremy Davies' overly sympathetic translator. All the rest were a bunch of bad Hollywood stereotypes (the guy from Brooklyn, the hardass, the mysterious commander... etc.). and the acting made the movie even worse. I love Ed Burns as a director but think he is awful as an actor (especially after viewing this film), and Tom Hanks assumed his standard heroic role doing little to draw all of the Oscar attention that has come his way. The two portions that made this movie worthwhile were the two battle scenes in which Spielberg masterfully placed us in this horrifying world. but I would have been just as satisfied if the movie consisted of just these two parts leaving out all the excess garbage. And with that you can proceed to hunt me down and have me tarred and feathered.