Excellent movie - little character development

Rating: Null/10 (31 July 1998)

First of all I want to say that technically, in every aspect, this was an EXCELLENT movie. However I was disappointed with the movie because I went with the wrong intentions. If you want to see this movie for the plot of 8 men saving the lives of 1 and the questions, conflicts, and emotions that go along with that, don't see this movie. I went because I was interested in the Sullivan law and the internal conflicts that arise from it.
However, if you want to be appalled and emotionally changed by the realities of war, this is the movie for you. It is so powerful. During the first twenty minutes, there was nothing but horrified silence from the audience with a gasp interjected here and there. The battle scenes were so gory and jarring that I found myself bracing myself for the next battle scene as opposed to concentrating on what little character development there was actually taking place.
That leads me to the characters. I thought the acting was excellent, but the character development lacking. By the time I actually began to get to know a character or care about him, a battle started or he was killed (graphically). I thought Tom Sizemore did an excellent job along with Tom Hanks. For the whole 15 minutes Matt Damon was actually on-screen, I thought he too, was excellent.
I felt like I ended up paying for 3 hours of camera-shaking, bloody, musicless torture. INTELLECTUALLY, I understand that this was an excellent movie, but how I FELT afterwards was horrible and drained, and maybe that's exactly the reaction that Spielberg was striving for.