The Thin Red Line -vs- Saving Private Rayn

The Thin Red Line -vs- Saving Private Rayn

  • The Thin Red Line

    Votes: 19 42.2%

  • Saving Private Ryan

    Votes: 26 57.8%
  • Total voters
    45
There's a plaintive quality to the tone of TTRL that resonates more with me. I loved the understated performance of Jim Caviezel as Private Witt. The scene at the beginning of the film with Witt talking about remembering how his mother didn't fear death, and then his own serene death at the hands of his Japanese captors really haunts me. His character was very Christ-like,(not trying to infuse religion into this) and this was probably the performance that led to his role as Jesus in The Passion.

There's just a beautiful naturalism to the performances (other than Clooney) and the whole movie is a meditation on the human condition.

It's a masterpiece.
 
I thought The Thin Red Line was one of the worst films I've ever seen. Boring, little plot, and too many "poetic" scenes that didn't advance the story.

I loved Saving Private Ryan, however.
 
TwistedLincoln said:
I thought The Thin Red Line was one of the worst films I've ever seen. Boring, little plot, and too many "poetic" scenes that didn't advance the story.

I loved Saving Private Ryan, however.
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I thought Saving Private Ryan was one of the worst films I've ever seen. too many boring "plot" scenes that didn't advance the poetry.
 
i think SPR is a better war film...but I like TRL just as much in other ways...so its a tie for me.
 
Both are great films but TRL got my vote. No question. It's perfection and it's unlike any other war film I've seen. Yes, SPR is amazing, but at its core its still your basic war film. TRL is so much more. It follows no patterns and it offers something unique and refreshing to the war film genre.

SPR was more real, shocking, and traumatic, but realism is not why I watch movies. I watch movies to be taken to some place unreal or surreal. Some place beautiful. TRL took me some place beautiful and, surprisingly, it was in the middle of a battlefield. And that's what's so great about TRL, you don't know where it's going to take you. It breaks the war film mold. It's poetry in a world of chaos. An island that shows both the beauty and ugliness of man. The music, dialogue, and visuals touch my soul. And it's a good touch. Whereas, SPR grabs you and slaps you around for 2 hours saying, "Look how real this is!!!"

Great thread. I'm going to watch TRL right not and get touched again. :)


EDIT: Those opening sequences on the island are incredible. Malick is great at capturing nature and human nature.
 
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What about HBO's Band of Brothers into the mix.

TRL = shades of gray. Brutality is an inherent part of humanity. The real war is in controlling it.

SPR = More black and white. War is hell but necessary to protect God, Country, Family, Honor blah blah.

BoB = "Whoa dude. Keep your head from getting shot off, you're in some ****" take on war. Getting through it. Surviving. The toll.

FMJ = shades of gray- man juxaposed to "the man" Joe Sixpack plugs into the war machine.

Apocolypse = defintely shades of gray- Man the animal on all levels from civilized/sterile military detachment... to shooting people from aircraft.. to the grunt on the ground with blood on his face and hands... to man reverted to living in the jungle. ****ing masterpiece of a script/story.

The Big Red One?
 
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