Saving Private Ryan (15)

Spielberg's World War Two mission movie opens with what is an already legendary recreation of the D-Day landings and closes with a strategic battle that's almost its match - - but everything in between falls short. It's here, devoid of the pyrotechnics, that Robert Rodat's undernourished script is exposed, revealing itself to be little more than a Boys' Own adventure yarn spun around stock characters. Such old-fashioned storytelling sits uneasily with violence so intense that it's been described as "pornographic".

DVD Extras:

Into The Breach featurette, original and re-release trailers, cast and crew biogs and production notes.The biogs and notes are detailed and the trailers effective, but it's the featurette that wins the day. Cannily mixing star interviews with the haunting words of surviving veterans, it works as both a promotional puff piece and a heartfelt tribute.

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