Not what you think

Rating: 6/10 (29 May 1999)

Everything you've heard about the first thirty minutes of "Saving Private Ryan" is true: it is indeed genuinely disturbing, realistic and unglamorous footage of war. But after that, you're in John Wayne country, kids! All the standard cliche war movie elements are giddily present and accounted for, right down to the apelike Nazi soldiers and the "we gotta take out that bridge" scenario! "SPR" is indeed a good war movie, but you're not going to come out of it thinking to yourself "Now I understand the terrible price that we as a free nation must pay for peace." You'll be thinking "Man, that scene with the tank blowing up totally ruled!"