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(Credits: Far Out \/ \tDreamWorks Pictures\/ Paramount Pictures)<\/p>\n
Mon 11 August 2025 18:15, UK <\/p>\n
As one of the greatest war movies ever made and one of the finest achievements in Steven Spielberg\u2019s incomparable career, there can\u2019t be many people, if any, who watched Saving Private Ryan<\/a> and thought to themselves, \u201cThat kind of sucked.\u201d<\/p>\n The movie is a rollercoaster of action, emotion, anguish, and poignancy from the first to the last minute. Whether the ear-shattering and pulse-pounding D-Day sequence, the nerve-shredding final battle, or the quieter, more introspective moments between the characters, it\u2019s an indisputable classic.<\/p>\n Because it became the highest-grossing World War II film in history, won five Academy Awards, was egregiously robbed of \u2018Best Picture\u2019 by Shakespeare in Love<\/a>, and continues to be celebrated almost three decades later as the benchmark for boots-on-the-ground filmmaking, it\u2019s easy to forget how Saving Private Ryan was pitted against Terrence Malick\u2019s The Thin Red Line.<\/p>\n \u2018Twin films\u2019 are a recurring phenomenon in Hollywood, and two high-profile auteurs helming war stories with ensemble casts<\/a> that were released months apart made it inevitable they\u2019d be lumped into the same conversation. However, Malick\u2019s first feature in the 20 years since Days of Heaven was a different beast.<\/p>\n Sure, there were superficial similarities between them, but whereas Saving Private Ryan favoured shock and awe, The Thin Red Line was more thematically ambitious, experimental, and philosophical. Spielberg may have crushed Malick at the box office, but they ended up competing head-to-head for six Oscars.<\/p>\n Unfortunately for The Thin Red Line, it won nothing and was defeated by its so-called rival for the prizes for \u2018Best Director\u2019, \u2018Best Cinematography\u2019, \u2018Best Editing\u2019, \u2018Best Original Score\u2019, and \u2018Best Sound\u2019. Both walked away empty-handed for their writing, although the former was competing for adapted screenplay, and Saving Private Ryan was in the running for its original script.<\/p>\n Still, each film had an Oscar-nominated screenplay, but one actor was adamant that The Thin Red Line blew Spielberg\u2019s masterpiece out of the water on that front. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but it didn\u2019t do Dash Mihok\u2019s biases any favours that he ended his assessment by revealing he\u2019d failed his audition for the latter\u2019s title character.<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t think Saving Private Ryan had a great script,\u201d he told Steve Goldman<\/a>. \u201cI mean, I kind of think the script sucked basically. I think it was a great film and a great Spielberg movie, but this script blew Private Ryan out of the box. And by the way, I read for Matt Damon\u2019s part, Private Ryan, which I didn\u2019t get.\u201d<\/p>\n