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Saving Private Ryan vs. The Thin Red Line

Formerly Rockymtnole

Ultimate Seminole Insider
Feb 9, 2013
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Was watching The Thin Red Line last night and had forgotten how great it is.

I love SPR, and will watch parts of it whenever it's on. It's fast-moving, somewhat cliched, but overall a nice neat package of a war movie, with perhaps one of the most intense battle sequences in movie history.

TTRL, on the other hand is an acquired taste. Difficult to get through in one sitting, definitely slow in parts, but the individual performances are stellar and the movie gives you a sense of the real grit and horror (and senselessness?) of war. More intense than SPR in many ways.

What say you?
 
SPR is enjoyable, but some hokey 'Hollywood Nazi' antics in the last battle (who is rolling up a 20mm flak in an assault?! Less than 50m from their target?) take it down a notch.

Hadn't seen TRL. Had read it was just a slow introspection, not really a 'war movie'. I suppose I should make time someday.

Favorite war movies are Black Hawk Down and Full Metal Jacket.

That part in BHD when Gen. Garrison says, "We just lost the initiative," always gives me chills.
 
Probably liked SPR more...TTRL seemed a little too slow and forced introspective.


An interesting comparison (if you have a rainy day to waste or just got your vas deferens snipped) is to watch The Longest Day and The Big Red One--comparing Cornelius Ryan's grand overview of the entire invasion of Normandy with Fuller's more focused story of one unit.

It was the basis for my final paper in remedial film class at FSU.
 
Thin red line was good, but remember being really slow and at the end when Caviasel was running around in the jungle was weird.

SPR is more entertaining.

FWIW, My father is a retired Col in the marines and was 18 year old infantryman in Vietnam and says "We Were Soldiers" is the most realistic war movie he has seen in regards to how things really go down in battle. It's hard to watch any military movie with him because he picks them apart. He worked with guys who died in Somalia during BHD incident, and he said they changed that story a ton.
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SPR is a very good movie but yes,,it is Hollywoord entertainment. That being said, I still hate Hopham and wish he died a slow painful death for allowing his fellow warriors to die before he finally grows a pair.

TTRL was extremely painful to watch. I would rather wax my kitchen floor and watch it dry than watch that movie again. But to each his own.

BHD, WWS and the others appeal to the public most of those who have knowledge of those services. I enjoy these movies as entertainment and actually don't get all wrapped around the axle about accuracy. It's just a movie I always say.
 
Fell asleep in the theater watching TRL. Extremely boring.

Saving Private Ryan was a masterpiece and I'm still mad it lost out to Shakespeare In Love for Best Picture. Utterly ridiculous.
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I couldn't get through much of Thin Red Line.

Saving Private Ryan isn't very good past the initial invasion opening to me. Very cheesy/dumb, would not watch again.

Not the biggest war movie guy, but I do think Full Metal Jacket is a great film, and Apocalypse Now has a lot to like.
 
I actually thought We Were Soldiers was good, but nothing special. Don't find myself too invested in any of the characters, and most of the movie is just repelling wave after wave of attacks. It was just missing something.
 
Originally posted by timenole:
Ponch... any movie you can think of that you liked for its realism?
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Not a movie but Band of Brothers is probably the closest I've seen that comes close. However, I don't watch many "War movies" to include the latest flood of all the Team movies.
 
Guess I'm in the minority. I liked TRL most of all. Love the characterizations, love the music, love everything about it. I was surprised when I recommended it to friends and they rolled their eyes after seeing it. Saving Private Ryan is a first class action movie; TRL is poignant and realistic and draws the audience more into the characters.
Still, to me, the most realistic war movie about Vietnam is Apocalypse Now. I'd have t say Thin Red Line is as realistic as Ryan although I don't know just how realistic anything can be made for people sitting in comfort in an air-conditioned theater munching popcorn.
 
SPR is on AMC now. I enjoy it but get so angry at the final battle scene. Still a good movie overall.
 
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