>Jerry,
>
>>Saving Private Ryan was a much better "this is how it was movie" and the plot was better, the acting was MUCH better, and no pretention.
>
>I thought it was an excellent film.
>
>> If your eyes were full of tears at the closing scenes in SPR then you don't understand what WWII was about.
>
>I'm not at all sure what you're getting at here.

The use of "you" wasn't directed at you..:)

Private Ryan, as an old man, asks "Have I lived a good life". Beginning with the horror at Omaha beach, the movie gives a vivid portrayal of combat during WWII, and what the soldiers endured to enable you and I to write about it, and anything else that we want, so freely. There was no question the war needed to be fought and Hitler defeated. The alternative was too horrific to contemplate.
That closing scene had me crying...sadness at the loss of life (war is hell), joy that he did take the sacrifice of the squad seriously, and a deepened sense of obligation to Freedom because of the price paid for it.