I agree with the above comments. The first half an hour was intense and sso was the last 45 minutes or so.

My only criticsm of the film is the middle sequence, specifically the aftermath of the extremely ill advised attack on the machine gun bunker at the radar installation.

Firstly, they shouldn't have attacked the bunker in the first place. They had been given SPECIFIC, not to mention, DIRECT orders. Namely, find Ryan and bring him back alive. So why deviate from this specific,direct job into a meaningless attack on a random machine gun post that would have no effect on the outcome of the war in general.. ? They could have easily all been killed and then the whole "Save Ryan" job goes down the toilet.

Then we move on to the breakdown in discipline of the squad when it becomes clear that the Major is not going to allow them to summarily execute the german prisoner. Whilst he may have been correct in not allowing his men to commit what would have been a violation of the Geneva convention, the whole episode merely demonstrated his folly in initiating the attack in the first place. It was obvious to anyone with even a modicum of military experience that the outcome of the attack was likely to be .. (a)death or injury to some or all of the squad members (b)taking of German prisoners with no provision to administer them.

Either or both of these outcomes would (and nearly did) have compromised the mission at hand . Schoolboy errors were commited by the Major at every juncture in this episode. This includes the ridiculous blindfolding of the German guy and letting him walk off into No mans Land.

This is a great anti war movie! Spielberg redefined with his opening sequence what war in movies should look like. Many anti war movies cope with the psychological impact of war on humankind, but Spielberg chose to show the physical destruction / deconstruction of life...

IMHO The only negative thing in this movie is the exaggerated pathos at the end. That’s typical for Spielberg...

Great movie. I watch it at least once a year on the anniversary of D-Day or on Remembrance/Veterans Day.

Not sure WHO'S bashing it, showed my kids this last night (their both teens) & my SON loved it! Its an almost flawless movie..yes, that middle part Hanks' character pushes for costing the life of the medic was a little annoying, but nevertheless this movie is NEVER boring! Arguably one of the best modern war movies EVER!