One of the worst war movies ever

Rating: 1/10 (1 February 2014)

Nobody who has studied WW2 just for a while and knows some basic facts about it can not like this film. The plot doesn't make any sense. Sacrifice the whole "rescue" unit for sake of one's paratrooper's life? Seriously? Stop pretending to be noble here and answer a simple question: "Is a search for one man (not rescue exactly) worth risking lives of a whole squad?" Furthermore, how can someone expect of a small unit, which consists of bunch of infantrymen, to find one man in such a vast area? There was a big mess after attack of allied paras. They were spread all over the place with heavy loses. Some reviewer wrote here the idea to call 101st on radio to pull Ryan back. I think that would be the best thing to do.
This movie is unbelievably insulting. The Germans are portrayed way too cartoonish like blood-thirsty animals (Americans are the good guys of course) and completely inept enemy at the same time, which of course wasn't true in most cases. The Germans were a tough enemy in spite of the fact that most of their soldiers were not equipped and trained well as in the earlier years. What all of you people who think the portrayal of Germans in this movie is realistic is the reason the war lasted so long?! Just bad luck and weather? No way. Some reviewers wrote that there is nothing stupid about Germans here because they made mistakes like slow reaction to the D-day or wrong estimation of the invasion's spot. That is true but it has nothing to do with quality of individual soldiers. That is not a justification for showing elite units including SS panzer gruppen as complete idiots!
The American saviors were just refusing to die each time a shootout emerged. Yes, they were killed finally but should be dead much earlier. You are supposed to sympathize with our bunch of American action characters but I just hated everyone of them. Spielberg wants us to think that they are battle hardened soldiers, but I had the feeling they are just kids playing some war game (except for the interpreter, who was totally unnecessary character btw., acting annoyingly cowardly for no reason in the whole movie). I was bored for most of the time after the first sequence. The way the unit moves behind enemy lines looks like a walk in Central Park. One German with machine gun in the right position could easily wipe out at least half of the unit because they didn't keep any type of formation which should have prevent this.
The final scene is so incredibly stupid that I doubt about common sense of those who spoke well about this one. You see German attackers running back and forth without covering fire or support in front of American barrels! Germans even don't try to find any kind of cover!! They even hardly return any fire!!! It's like shooting range for American soldiers or some kind of PC game. Looks like every dead American takes at least 100 Germans to hell with him. Kids, if you like this sequence, I have bad news for you. The war doesn't look like this. You hardly see anything more than enemy soldier's head and his gun when combat occurs and of course the kills are not so easy to get. On the other hand the Americans also run uncovered many times but with some ability to dodge bullets or something like that. That is the only explanation of my own for their immortality. In reality they would have been killed instantly if they would behave in such way as shown in this sequence, for example running in front of PzKpfw tiger which has manually operated machine gun at the front. The rules which apply to Germans somehow don't apply to Americans.
The tactics performed by both allies and axis here is laughable. Germans wouldn't enter a town with tanks ahead and infantry behind them because the tanks are vulnerable in urban areas. Their strength is placed in the open. The attack on the radar station is weird as well. The defenders were surely part of a bigger group. It is obvious that after killing the defenders the Americans should retire using "Hit and run" tactics because other Germans could enter a fight. Instead of it, they argue on the very spot they've just captured about a sense of their mission like there is nothing to worry about (it would have been clear to an orangutan from a very beginning that this mission sucks). Just stupid.
I could go on like this and mention for example shooting 7 shots from 5 round rifle without reloading and so on but I will skip it. You cannot let this so called war movie treat with history like this. Call it action B movie and I'm gonna take it. Never watch this crap if you like history and portrayal of it in the way it actually happened.