Saving Private Ryan

Just finished watching this, and I'm not sure...

So much about this film is right. The first third, and the last third, which are both focussed on combat, or preparations for combat, are brilliantly realised -- technically, and in their depiction of the relentless, random, undiscriminating, revolting violence of war. As in war, no one is privileged by their status or skill. They can all die, and they do. These battle scenes are terrifying.

The central third, though, I'm not so sure about. There's too much obvious soul-searching and thinking going on, and the script, to me, feels a bit too neat and pithy. The Band of Brothers approach, with people being mostly mute or inarticulate, feels somehow truer.

The emotional truth of the film -- the veteran thinking back, and being profoundly grateful for/humbled by the sacrificial deaths of so many of his comrades -- comes across, but you're somehow overconscious of that, as if you're aware of the artifice that Spielberg is bringing to bear. In my judgement (and look how many millions I've made at the box office) the brilliant morph from Matt Damon to the veteran at the end does enough. I think the final speeches over-egg the pudding.

Very nearly great, very nearly. It makes you feel for the people who had to do this, and admire their immense courage amidst terrifying circumstances -- a civilian army, for the most part: ordinary people like my uncle and my granddad, all just doing their bit. And yet...it feels a bit too neat, narratively, and that stops it -- for me -- making the leap to greatness.