OVERRATED

Rating: 7/10 (22 March 1999)

When I go to the movies, I expect to be transported. When I watch Saving Private Ryan or any other Spielberg movie, such as Schindler's List, I feel strangely detached from everything. Oft-times, his movies have that epic feel, but they don't seem to have captured Spielberg's passion, do they? While I was watching the famed "first 20 minutes," all I could do was look on at the screen, almost indifferent to the violence. Maybe it's because I'm growing up in a society obsessed with violence and bloodshed, but I didn't feel like I was there. I felt like I was watching it 50 years after the fact and it was just very ineffectual to me. The other WWII movie, "Life is Beautiful," however, was created as a much more intimate film with less violence and affected me much more than "Saving Private Ryan" and "Schindler's List" did. I hope in Spielberg's next film, he puts the story and the characters ahead of the spectacle of it all.