A triumph of style

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2000)

If you like this movie, you like it because of the style. The battle scenes are amazing and some of the best ever put on film. This movie could have been great had someone paid attention to the script. There are so many problems with it (apart from being quite an average plot) I don't even know where to start. Let's point out the obvious one: the movie is told from the Matt Damon character's point of view -- and he wasn't even in most of the movie! There's no way he can know the story of how Hanks found Private Ryan, because he wasn't there! If you want to know why this movie lost the Best Picture Oscar, that's it. The underlying structure of the script is so flawed, it undermines everything Spielberg did with the movie. Still, this is a good movie. A very good movie even and it is certainly worth your while. I'm just sorry most people will rent it on video because it really benefits from a cinema experience.