Film Fight Club: Round 7

Full Metal Jacket and Platoon were neck and neck, until FMJ took a commanding lead and killed Platoon 17-9.

Shifting wars now, we go to the year 1998 when two films came out that had a great cast and both dealt with WWII. One had a visionary director behind the lens, the other had probably the most famous director of all-time.

The Thin Red Line



VS

Saving Private Ryan



Which was the better film? Which depicted WWII more accurately? Which had a lasting effect on you?

__________________
"A laugh can be a very powerful thing. Why, sometimes in life, it's the only weapon we have."

Suspect's Reviews

I enjoy The Thin Red Line much more, even though it's more surreal and poetic than Saving Private Ryan which tells a more straight-forward tale. I typically don't enjoy poetry or art for art's sake without it serving a purpose beyond being beautiful, but The Thin Red Line works with the soldier contemplating his place in life.

Saving Private Ryan could be the best film Spielberg made, but it's hampered by the bookends of Ryan as an elderly man with his family showing Spielberg cannot simply get his message across without the manipulative "See he was worth saving because he started a family... yadda yadda" stuff. I thought the troops complained about the mission a bit too much as I know they were filling in for the audience sitting in the theater asking themselves, "Why is one man so important." I do enjoy several of Hank's speeches including his bit after the best part of the film when he has to maintain control of his revolting men after letting the German soldier go.

I guess maybe the whole, "Ryan had to earn it" thing kind of annoyed me. The first Ryan they stumbled on was not suitable and worthy of being saved because he cries, accepts going home, etc..., but because the other Ryan is brave and wants to fight and takes the news of his brothers' deaths "like a man" he somehow gains the respect of Hank's character. This irked me just rubs me wrong. The message of course is handed to us again by Spielberg with the last minutes of the movie where Ryan's at Miller's grave.

It makes me want to go watch The Americanization of Emily, at least on an intellectual level with is light years ahead of Spielberg's film philosophically. Of course maybe I'm reading Spielberg's message completely wrong, but I don't think I am.

I love a lot of the movie and hate a lot of it as well. This is typical of Spielberg films for me, which is probably why Catch Me if You Can and Duel are the two movies of his I rate the highest because they contain the least amount of his brand of sentimentality and message.

I rank The Thin Red Line an A because it is beautiful, well crafted and I enjoy the context of the Malick bits, but I'm due for a rewatch. Saving Private Ryan is an "A" film for me. Easy. Only without the material I have mentioned in this post.

__________________
"A candy colored clown!"
Member since Fall 2002
Top 100 Films, clicky below

http://www.movieforums.com/community...ad.php?t=26201

I thought little of SPR, but I've not seen much of TRL beyond catching it on tv for about 30 minutes, nearly an hour in.

I like The Thin Red Line a lot, and it does have a lot more to offer than Saving Private Ryan. I do like both films, but The Thin Red Line comes out on top.

__________________
"George, this is a little too much for me. Escaped convicts, fugitive sex... I've got a cockfight to focus on."

Went with Saving Private Ryan. Thin Red Line is decent; very poetic and languid, but I just found SPR to be much more engaging and powerful.

__________________

Saving Private Ryan is more entertaining and popcorn-crunching for me, but I just find The Thin Red Line to be more poetic and powerful. It stays with me more than SPR and I thought of it as surreal and beautiful.

I HATED that ending.

Never saw The Thin Red Line.

SPR is way too typical of a war film as far as its beaten-to-death message. That's kinda the problem with war movies now they just want you to feel bad instead of tell you something.

Or, as The Pub Landlord said, "That's why we stayed out of Vietman. Because we wanted our war films to stay cheerful."