Metacritic reviews

An overwhelming experience.

A war film that, entirely aware of its genre's conventions, transcends them as it transcends the simplistic moralities that inform its predecessors, to take the high, morally haunting ground.

Spectacular, wrenching masterpiece that unflinchingly documents the random horror, the grisly spectacle and the ugliness of war.

The effect is riveting and frightening. You feel you are under siege with the combatants.

A magnificent piece of movie-making.

A bitter, bloody masterpiece with adrenalized emotions and hyper-realized images, this is perhaps as close to battle as any sane human being should ever hope to tread.

The movie's greatest strength lies in phenomenal performances that reach from the leads right down to the smallest supporting roles.

If Steven Spielberg's emotional intelligence matched his visual genius, his honorably flawed new film might qualify for one of the greatest-ever American WWII movies.

Steven Spielberg's new film begins as a monumental epic; then it diminishes; and, by its finish, is baffling. [August 24, 1998]

Nothing that suggests an independent vision, unless you count seeing more limbs blown off than usual.