What a farce!

Rating: 1/10 (29 December 1998)

With all the hype about this movie, I expected to see a realistic portrayal of war. I also expected to see a true story, which all the trailers claim this movie is. This movie has as much basis in fact as that cheesy soap "The X-Files". Spielberg is trying to mess with everyone's head again, and thanks to this movie, there will be a whole generation of people who think "Saving Private Ryan" really happened. Luckily they teach students better in school. If you want a hard-hitting, realistic portrayal of war, try Arliss Howard in "Full Metal Jacket", Charlie Sheen in "Platoon", Adrien Brody in "The Thin Red Line", Meg Ryan in "Courage Under Fire", or, heck, anything else. This movie had the potential to be one of the greatest war movies of all time. The scenes on the beaches are not only gruesomely real, they're breathtakingly brutal, as well as soul-stopping. If the rest of the movie had one tenth the shock-quality or realism the first few minutes had, this movie would have been one of the best war movies ever made.
Hollywood glamour has ruined this movie. Thankfully people are too smart to be sucked in by what this movie claims "truly happened", but there are already some schools that are discussing using this movie as a way to teach students about war. Why not use "Starship Troopers"? It's just as realistic, and unlike "Saving Private Ryan", can actually educate. If you walked away from this movie feeling dissatisfied and cheated, check out some of the other war movies I mentioned. They are all far better depictions of what war truly is, and unlike SPR, they don't claim to be the truth. For a truly realistic war movie that deserves every award it's been rumored for, check out the 1998 remake of "The Thin Red Line".