Cringe inducing is a good term I'd use to describe Saving Private Ryan. I always thought there were too many corny, audience-manipulating scenes in the film. And that was prior to my introduction to indie/foreign films which revolutionized my film tastes which has since rendered Saving Private Ryan utterly impossible to sit through.

To each his own.

Popcorn, I'm with you. SPR is easily one of the worst war films I've ever seen. Thin Red Line is not perfect, but it's about 1,000 times better than SPR.

Gentlemen, I salute you.

Although both movies lend credence to my theory that POW films are better than outright war films.

I love the opinions in this thread 'SPR is easily one of the worst war films I've ever seen'. Give me a break. Sounds like 'well too many like SPR and it made too much money and get too much acclaim so I am going to say something outrageous'.

The Thin Red Line is a tedious masterpiece, but Saving Private Ryan is much more rewatchable.

Or perhaps I've seen a lot of war films and SPR is one of the worst. Other than the opening, what's good about it? If Spielberg had done just the opening sequence as a short film, it would have been stunning. But then he had to ruin it with trite dialogue, and paper-thin characters.

That's really surprising in a film directed by Steven Spielberg.

....I think the D-Day sequence is amazing. BUT Suprmallet might have a point about if it was a short film. How long was the actual D-Day on the beaches of Normandy? You know...reaching Normandy, off the vehicles, etc, etc etc then winning over the beach? How long was that? Enough for a full length film, no?

I apparently didn't vote in the original poll, but if I had I would have voted for SPR at the time, and I would have changed my mind.

Thin Red Line has definitely gotten better with age, and SPR has definitely gotten worse. This probably has more to do with my age/tastes than the movies themselves.

Didn't vote originally but still voted for SPR now...

Perhaps you should enlighten us inferior mortals with the "great war" films you have seen that are so much better. I am not looking to shit on the ones you think are far better just curious as to ones that you think are so much better. I don't think SPR is the greatest either but naming it one of the worst war movies you have ever seen... well that is a pretty big leap.

It's consistently on every best-of list for war movies. I'm going to have to dismiss your opinion out of hand.

War movies that are better than Saving Private Ryan: Apocalypse Now, The Dirty Dozen, Where Eagles Dare, All Quiet On The Western Front, The Thin Red Line, The Hurt Locker, Patton, The Longest Day, From Here To Eternity, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Stalag 17, The Deer Hunter, The Grand Illusion, Inglourious Basterds, the list goes on.

Right, because disagreeing with the majority means I must be wrong all the time. I'm sure you have some opinions that don't agree with the majority as well.

But tell me this, without the opening scene, would Saving Private Ryan be nearly as lauded as it was? All I remember people talking about when the movie came out was the opening. All they talk about today is the opening. Let's face it, the movie peaks early and leaves you wondering why you're still watching.

"trite dialogue" like what? I just get this I am going to critcize SPR due to the fact that it had a lot of commercial success and Thin Red Line didn't vibe. I loved both movies and own both but to say it has trite dialogue and paper thin characters is a really shallow statement.

Yes let's go to the 'without this scene' or 'take this scene out of the movie' card to validate my point. YOU CAN'T TAKE OUT THAT SCENE. So let's not go with the 'without this scene' argument please.

I don't care how much money a movie makes. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World was my favorite movie so far this year, and I haven't made a single negative comment about any other movie for making more money (which almost every movie this year has done).

And it's not shallow to say SPR had trite dialogue and paper thin characters; it just means I watched the movie.

You made my day. I have renewed respect for you, Suprmallet. (The only thing better would have been the addition of KELLY'S HEROES to that list.)

I have yet to see Kelly's Heroes, but it's on the list!

I've never even seen Thin Red Line!

You've never seen Kelly's Heroes?

although I wouldn't go so far as to call ALL the characters "paper thin", the vast majority were.

All the characters with the exception of Capt. Miller, Cpl. Upham and to a degree Medic Wade were, to a degree, caricatures of soldiers you might expect to see in a war film. Even the ones I mentioned were not drawn out enough.

Dialogue wise- overall I feel it to be fine, not GOOD but fine. It certainly had moments of stupidity but basically it was fair within the context of it's story. Expectable and nothing to write home about, but basically on par with other war films in it's league.

Then again, what do I know. I keep saying 'The Hurt Locker' wasn't all that great yet people keep trying to tell me it was, all the while choosing to overlook it's obvious cliches and goofiness.

'Stalag 17', now there's a film that doesn't get enough respect!

So, see it.

I don't know about "all the time". Do you have a history of being a contrarian? I haven't noticed.

But one of the worst war movies ever? Come on.

Maybe it's a generational/political thing. Someone mentioned earlier: "flag waving nutjobs" and "having a defense system set up against..patriotism". Well, I can see how someone who feels like that would espouse TTRL above SPR.

My vote for worst war movie ever? Pearl Harbor, of course! Honorable Mention goes to Windtalkers....

Yes, The Thin Red Line book was written by a war veteran. You should read his essay in the Criterion Collection Blu Ray of The Thin Red Line, he takes apart war movies and shows how unrealistic most of them are. I wonder what he woulda said about spr? I voted for TRL.