[Skybird]

Ryan deserves credits for having been the first to show the cruelty of the war and especially the beach landing with such uncompromising realism. Before, WWII movies always were "correct" and clinical, glossing over the grim reality (with the exception of "Steiner I -The Iron Cross", maybe). For many in the audience, Ryan's brutal pictures were a shock. I remember well the group of young adults sitting in front of me, two couples, with beers and popcorn, and joking and so on. After twenty minutes one women left, silently crying, her partner went after her and later came back alone. And after the show was over, their beers were half full, and the popcorn looked mostly untouched. A war movie that does not have a comparable effect, is making entertainment of war. Which is disgusting. The market is full of these. Shame.

The question of the movie (how many lives are worth the life of just one) is worth to be discussed. All in all Spielberg did a good job, but not that superior outstanding piece of work many were seeing it as.

What I did not like: that in the end there is pathos again coming in. I hate pathos. This they avoided when filming Band of Brothers, which technically used the same grim approach on the brutality of war. This makes BoB more unbiased and neutral - and especially because of this it is such a great movie (series).

I would not say Ryan is a bad movie. But in comparison, Red Line leads so very far beyond it's scope. the film is almost a meditation.

As good war movie especially on the Nazi era, I also recommend the German b/w-movie "Die Brücke."