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In September 1998, Steven Spielberg received the Knight Commanders Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany from President Roman Herzog, who denotative Germanys appreciation to the American Jewish director. "Germany thanks you for work that has given us more than you may realize," said Herzog. The film that made the Germans realize that there were perchance heroes among them would be Schindlers List. Yet at that time, Spielbergs subsequent film was also playing in German cinemas--a film that had as its cornerstone the same verse from the Talmud emblazoned on the screen in Schindlers List "Whoever saves one life, saves the world entire."In making Saving Private Ryan, Spielberg inverted that principle to show an entire group background out to save a single--and virtually unknown--soldier, someone more remote to them than Schindlers people were to him. Saving Private Ryan focuses on Captain John Millers (Tom Hanks) leading a special squadron det ailed to find and save the last son of Mrs. Ryan, whose other three boys have perished on three different fronts. The carnage they must guinea pig is so often blamed on their quest that, by the time we meet Ryan himself, he all too readily accepts the burden of guilt. Spielbergs ability to human face at World War II first this way, then that, has guaranteed him an altar in the magazine/TV/newsprint edifice that enshrines pop culture--where our latest products ar sheltered, framed, hung, and subjected to an examination of ourselves within the work of art. The critical establishment seldom bothers to wire in a feed from Europe, where reactions to Hollywood product can alert us to surprising things about the movies themselves, as well as the auteurs behind them. In Germany, for example, the reception of Schindlers List undoubtedly benefitted from the effect of historian Daniel Goldberg tutoring the people in their straight-laced role as willing villains. Spielberg brought relief by focusing on the hero among them and creating a masterpiece dedicated to their past.