Differing perspectives...

Rating: Null/10 (10 November 1999)

I've noticed that most of the people who didn't like the film are from outside the United States. That's not unusual, I think; the movie would have more of an emotional appeal to Americans. But using a movie to voice your own rather bigoted attitudes toward a country is hardly becoming. World War II was a defining moment for the United States, and a very emotional one as well. Americans can be justifiably proud of what the United States accomplished during the war, just as Russians and Brits can be proud of what sacrifices were made on their behalf. I don't like chest-thumping jingoism any more than anyone else, but I honestly did not see that here. I saw pride, not arrogance. I saw American soldiers act cowardly, and German soldiers show mercy. Mostly I saw how combat has a debilitating effect on human beings, regardless of how "noble" the overall purpose is. World War II began in Europe, it did not begin with or in the United States. Any latent militarism or patriotism caused by the effects of two world wars on American culture ultimately owes its existence to the people responsible for starting those wars in the first place. I don't believe, however, that this movie or Tom Hanks intention in making it was vapid patriotism, anymore than his "From the Earth to the Moon" or Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" were. Some patriotism is legitimate -- dying to end fascism and the Holocaust, in my books, rates as legitimate.