I do not think the film "Saving Private Ryan" rates anywhere near the best war film that was ever made. As others have already pointed out, the movie had its good parts, but there were too many sloppy mistakes. If Hollywood can spend that kind of budget making a film, why can't they do a bit more research? I have my own list of SPR nit-picks, that I won't bother to go into.

I will say this: SPR was a revolutionary film in that it was the first to use the new cinematic techniques of the hand-held camera and sound effects work, that brought the viewer right into the chaos of combat. The realism factor was boosted ten-fold. This would be repeated in Band of Brothers, and I believe changed the way war movies will be made forever. I remember talking with my father's platoon leader (rest his soul), who eventually became a company commander. He went to see SPR with his grandson. After the movie ended, his grandson asked: "Was being in the war as bad as that, grandpa? Grandpa simply replied: "worse!"

Greg C.

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"These are my credentials!"-Brig. Gen. Charles D.W. Canham [pointing to GI's of Company I, 13th Infantry Regiment, 8th Infantry Division] to General der Fallschirmjager Hermann Bernhard Ramcke, Crozon Peninsula September 19, 1944.