Saving Private Ryan v The Thin Red Line

The Ali-Frazier I of ´90s war movies:



vs.

 

SPR by a light year. Not even a little bit close.

For YEARS I heard a minority of people say that TRL is better, so one day I gave it a chance... it's not even a top 5 war movie imo.

 

I prefer to watch Saving Private Ryan, as an entertainment piece and did so again with my wife about 3 weeks ago (we went to see Dunkirk, which she thought was amazing, but had never seen Saving Private Ryan)....so a week later, I re-watched The Thin Red Line: I prefer that as a piece of movie ´art´.

 

I prefer "Thin Red Line", especially for repeat viewings.

"Saving Private Ryan" certainly gives a better impression upon first viewing, but it's such a visceral movie, it loses a lot of it's impact in later viewings.

"Thin Red Line" is a much more cerebral and atmospheric movie. I get tingles every time the tiny group storms the big hill, and also when Jesus Caveziel gives himself up to the Japanese to give his mates the chance to alert his patrol. They are really at polar opposite ends of the spectrum as far as war movies go, but both are fucking classics when it comes right down to it.

 

Good one. Thin Red Line is better.

 

Bad matchup. Saving Private Ryan TKO1.

I love war movies but The Thin Red Line wasn't that good.

 

This shoulda been SPR vs Platoon.

 

Platoon is actually much closer to Thin Red Line as far as tone and style go.

 

Different decades, different wars.

Platoon vs Full Metal Jacket, maybe...

 

Platoon by a mile.

The second half of FMJ is about as interesting as a Paul Spadafora fight.

 

Go and watch Platoon again.
I did a few months back and it isn't that great either...

 

Thin Red Line is rubbish.

MTF

 

I'm in the minority here I'm sure...but I have zero interest in war films

 

It's definitely not my favorite genre. Only a handful few stick out to me.... SPR is one of them.

 

That's absurd. How so?

 

Went to the cinema to watch it when it first came out. Really looked forward to it. Was bored shitless and left an hour in.

No real explanation other than that. Couldn't abide it.

MTF

 

Gotta side with Double L on this one, and it pains me to say it, but MeetTheFeebles is an artless cunt.

 

I can live with it.

MTF

 

SPR is a very good movie, but it is a pretty standard movie, although it is very well directed. TRL left a lasting impression on me. I prefered it.

 

I think the problem with The Thin Red Line for a lot of people is, they don´t understand that warfare isn´t always BANG!!-BOOOOM!!-RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-TAT-´GRENAAAADE!´´-KABOOM-EEEERRROOWWWWW-AIIEEEEE!-ARRRGHHHHH!




Warfare is (to quote a famous and accurate line from a Naval officer many years ago): ´weeks of boredom puncuated by moments of terror´

 

I don’t get how you can compare a straight forward film to art house film. Meetthefeebles is right, TTRL was an absolute bore and this is coming from a guy who loves drama films. It wasn’t a straight forward type film and some people just don’t get those kind of films and I’m one of them, so SPR by a mile.

 

Depends on a) how many arthouse movies you´ve seen/liked and b) if you think The Thin Red Line is purely one of those.

For me, its simple and straightforward: a US army platoon try and gain control of Guadalcanal from the Japanese.
Nothing very unusual happens: soldiers get killed, go crazy with fear, fall out with superiors, and try to find ways of surviving...with the occasional arty scene here and there.

 

I completely didn’t understand what was going on and wished I’d walked out on it like Mr. Feebs but I kept thinking they’d eventually fight a battle or something.

 

BAAANG!!-BOOOOM!!-RAT-A-TAT-A-TAT-TAT!-´GRENAAAADE!´´-KABOOM-EEEERRROOWWWWW-AIIEEEEE!-ARRRGHHHHH!

 

I'll put is this way... SPR is the only war movie I've ever seen that actually makes you feel like you're IN THE WAR WITH THEM.

 

One of the reasons "Saving Private Ryan" and "Thin Red Line" are completely different from each other, other then the tone the film-makers take with them, is they were two completely different fronts of war, with two completely different strategies by the enemy.

"SPR" has them storming the beaches of Normandy and taking extreme fire and heavy casualties before they even reach the shore. "TRL" starts with a similar beach landing, but to the surprise of the soldiers (and probably a large portion of the audience watching the movie), nothing happens because the Japanese know they are heavily outnumbered and have already decided to try to lull the allies into complacency and make it more of a guerilla war, once they have already landed.

Plenty of action actually does happen as the movie goes on. Soldiers sacrifice themselves for each other, kids at war show courage AND cowardice. Nick Nolte chews the scenery as his higher ranking colleagues still see him as a grunt, and his lower ranking colleagues constantly question his reckless methods. Morale gets shaken and war crimes become commonplace.

No, there is no opening scene to make you gush about for years to come, and there is no rah-rah ending battle where everybody raises their rifles up in victory and then goes home and fucks a bunch of kids into their wives and girlfriends.

These guys left Guadacanal at the end of the movie, but they weren't going home, and they weren't done with war yet. They were just a little bit older then they were when they got there.

(Snobby art critic rant over)

 

Good post.

 

THIS!
And I will not add anything else to that except: AMEN!

 

Maybe I need to rewatch that movie because others reviews of it never sound like what I remember. I don’t remember their being a coherent story or much sensible straightforward dialogue. I also really don’t remember any battle scenes. I’m starting to think maybe I did walk out on it.