A movie with balance

Rating: 10/10 (18 July 1999)

What's interesting is that we have a meeting of the war movie minds with this film. SPR has attracted the John Wayne/Audie Murphy fans with the realists aka. Coppola/Stone/Kubrick lovers. Both camps will find fault with this movie, but an open mind will really appreciate what Spielberg achieved with this film. The action in the first half-hour is top notch. You will not find action of this kind in any war movie to date. Now we come to the plot. War films and plots are usually blurred or non-existent (unless they are non-fiction/attempted true to life films). In this case we have a fictional story with a plot. Compared to Platoon and FMJ, this movie HAS a plot. The movie has peaks and valleys, as do most films. That is how one builds a climax. The hype of this film has jaded many to believe that you can achieve 2 hours and 49 minutes of intensity to match D-day. Spielberg captures peaks and valleys of soldier combat. It's intense battles with a lot of boredom.
to sum it up:
Patton: better character development
Platoon: uses personal experience to judge a period of time, too much bias to show one side of Vietnam. Deer Hunter makes Platoon look weak.
FMJ: Characters a bit disjointed, realistic combat
The Longest Day: a puff piece, the only redeeming aspect is the German perspective.
A Bridge Too Far: weak screenplay for a true to life drama, a good war film nonetheless