John Wayne, eat your heart out!

Rating: Null/10 (5 November 1999)

What makes Speilberg's WWII epic "Saving Private Ryan" so great is the fact that it takes a plot from a 1940's war propaganda film starring, oh...perhaps John Wayne... and makes it real. The plot line is simple: Eight men are assigned to find one man whose brothers have all been killed and send him home. The question is, is the lives of eight men worth risking for the life of one?
Speilberg, in all of his brilliance, manages to take this simple story and uses it as both an excellent character study and as a vehicle for graphic depictions of World War II: No more is there blood and glory....Just horror and fear. These men who are fighting aren't the fearless war heroes of all the propoganda films of the 40's. On the contrary, they are normal, average men who are afraid and who hate this mission. They aren't just actors...They are you and I in these situations, presenting our humanity and our frailtiess in chaos.
This might be the first film to depict World War II in such a way. Of course, it helps that it is backed by an excellent cast (Tom Hanks, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Matt Damon, Ted Danson to name only a few) that knows how to portray each character in memorable ways. But also, this might be the most gruesome of all wars films, not beating around the bush when it comes to the realistic violence that resulted from the war. Limbs are blown off, brains are shot out....The violence is aplenty, but not in a way to glorify it, as many war films do. No, this film uses it to reiterate the original idea: War is hell...no, it's worse, and it's not something be glorified. These men sacrificed their lives for us, being no better than us and no worse....And if it was you in the situation, you would have to do the same. Respect that.
There's no question about it. This film *should have* won best picture, and it was absolutely robbed. If "Shakespeare in Love" was one millionth this film, it might have had a chance at competing against it.... How it beat this masterpiece is beyond me....
Ignore the foolish academy. This film is the greatest of 1998...Perhaps one of the greatest of the decade....
********************************************************************************************** out of ****