The Most Overrated Film Of All Time?

Rating: 1/10 (4 June 1999)

It may not be the MOST overrated, but it's certainly up there along with Scream and Fargo and There's Something About Mary.
Oh what a battle scene - the fantastic motion sickness inducing cinematography, the masterfully overhyper editing, the gore, oh the wonderful gore. And so forth.
The Omaha beach landing was quite intense. It was brutal and affecting. But people just can't seem to get it into their heads that one extended battle scene does not a great film make.
After *that*, we get yet another version of a tired, clichéd mission movie, filled with your usual stereotypes: reminiscing about the good ol' days before this all ever happened, doing whatever it takes just to get home, blah, blah, blah. Also painfully stereotypical are the characters: we have the saddened captain who misses his normal job and life, we've got the hardnut sergeant, the Italian guy, the Jewish guy, the New Yorker, and so forth. And all the Germans are skinheaded bastards - and by the way, where the hell were the other allied troops? Oh, I forgot, it was the Americans that won the war (flag shots at the beginning and end are just painfully sad).
The middle of the MOVIE is incredibly boring. Pointless, predictable set-pieces are tiresome. The scenes in which the rattled soldiers tell little stories of life at home (the medic talking about his mother, Ryan talking about his brothers, etc.) are awful attempts at evoking sympathy and sentimentality.
Then there's the final battle. Outnumbered, the men revert to primitive tactics (a bit like Predator). Quite unbelievably, this lengthy fight is incredibly boring, and the one at the end of Young Guns is far better.
5 Oscars? Obviously due to the beach landing bit, they are mostly undeserved. Best Director - should have been Peter Weir, or Terence Malick. Best Cinematography - John Toll for The Thin Red Line, without any doubt in the world. Editing - Out Of Sight deserved this even more than The Thin Red Line. I suppose the two sound awards are justified.
For people to call this the Greatest War Film Of All Time is just wrong. The best is Apocalypse Now. This is not the best World War Two film either - Das Boot is. This can't even be described as the best D-Day/Normandy beach landings movie either - The Longest Day kicks its a**. To go even further - this is not even Spielberg's best war film. Schindler's List is superior.
To summarise - great beginning, but the rest sucked. If you haven't seen it, don't bother. Or, if you insist, watch the beginning, then leave/press stop. You'll be doing yourself a big favour.