After viewing Spielberg's past films and his latest epic The Saving of Private Ryan, it is clear to me this director is bent upon portraying Germany in the worst possible light.

In his Indiana Jones and Schindler's List films, Germans are portrayed as bumbling idiots and/or unthinking murderous goons, completely devoid of facial expression and human emotion.

In Saving Private Ryan, all the German soldiers are shown as bald-headed slovenly thugs. In one graphic combat scene, a German soldier is shown stabbing a Jewish GI through the heart. (Is there a message there? I've seen subtle messages in films, but that's ridiculous.)

His attitude toward Germans is obviously not a good one. It is unclear to me whether he is directing his venom at Nazism or Germany in general. In any case, he seems to be spending an awful lot of time and money doing exactly that, as this anti-German theme is prevalent in many of his pictures.

I would like to say that I am neither German nor Jewish, but I feel Spielberg's movies are merely opening up old wounds and unduly promoting hostility toward another nation. The Third Reich government was an evil system, most people¬including modern-day Germans¬are fully aware of that. I feel most Americans are willing to let bygones be bygones as far as past wars are concerned and move on toward the future. More importantly, Germany is a close ally of the United States and sides with the US on most international issues.

When people watch a film and leave a theater, they are left with an impression of the film's theme. That is precisely why I am opposed to using films as propaganda pieces instead of their original purposes, i.e., entertainment.

John Harmer