I admire Private Ryan for not flinching from the shock and trauma of the war. However, the film had every war movie cliche’ in it produced since World War II. Idealistic young officer, tough old Sarge, the guy from Brooklyn, the big “dumb” guy (he gets killed off early). The plot is contrived, to say the least. And some of the dialogue seems to come out of Spielberg’s childhood fantasies, generated from watching all those B movies. Unrealistic story, realistic execution.
Ditto to your fine summary. Great opening, schlock story line.