Trout

Were does The Green Berets or Battle of the Bulge fit in?

A few questions:
How is the original Thin Red line compare to the "remake"?
Do you think TRL was good because of Malick's style, the writing, or because of the score?
Will we ever see the longer cut of the movie?

covenant

The Battle of the Bulge gets a pass simply because of the Panzerlied!

Ash Ketchum

THE BATTLE OF THE BULGE (1965) is pretty silly on most counts, but it's got such a great cast that it remains highly watchable:

Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson: future co-stars of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST

Robert Ryan, Telly Savalas and Bronson: future co-stars of THE DIRTY DOZEN

Plus: Robert Shaw, James MacArthur, George Montgomery, Pier Angeli

arminius

The Panzerlied is the only part of the movie that is even remotely accurate.

I like TRL because it reminds me of laying in a position and just thinking, which you end up doing alot of. Watching insects and the terrain and just thinking about the women in your life. SPR was ok but it is just a Hollywood war movie. It reminded me of Combat. or A walk in the Sun(which is better).

FRwL

Battle of the Bulge does get a pass for how magnificent Robert Shaw is. Even though they could have just filmed the whole thing in the forest instead of parts taking place in a freakin desert later on.

Daytripper

This is like a vicious circle. There are several war movies better than "SPR".

FRwL

Green Berets is good cause even though whatever message its doing its still fascinating for being one of the first or first Nam movie actually made when it was going on. Those northern trees in that movie conicidentally are more accurate since there is a region in Vietnam like that btw. Also woulda been interesting to see Coppola shoot Apoc Now in 1969 like he originally intended. Really it could have been pulled off except there would not be as much of the hanging corpses or screaming leg soldier.

tommyp007

I love SPR. I've started TTRL 3 times and have never been able to finish it, due to boredom. I'll try again sometime.

Supermallet

I wouldn't call Full Metal Jacket one of the best war movies, either. Paths of Glory is much better.

covenant

I gave it another shot tonight just because of this thread. I got an hour and twenty minutes in and gave up. It's just not interesting enough to keep me engaged. And I've finished some long slooooow movies before, Shoah being one of the most notorious. I may go ahead and buy the book to see whose fault it is, James Jones or Terrence Mallick.

I love this quote from Ebert's review: "My guess is that any veteran of the actual battle of Guadalcanal would describe this movie with an eight-letter word much beloved in the Army." I'm guessing Bullshit.

Ash Ketchum

Blame Malick, not Jones. The book is easily the greatest war novel I've ever read. The best parts of the movie come right from the book. The worst parts were made up by Malick. E.g. the scenes of Caviezel's character "going native" in the fishing village. There's nothing like that in the book. In fact, Caviezel's character, Pvt. Witt, was an unrepentant racist in the book, as well as a minor character. And Penn is all wrong as Sgt. Welsh, who didn't talk much in the book but made his feelings known through action. Penn talks--and thinks--way too much. Fife (played by Adrien Brody) was a major character in the book, and a very angry one. Seen only briefly in the film, Brody plays him as quiet and timid.

I could go on. But it is instructive to read the book and then see both movie versions.

covenant

Thanks Ash, that confirms my suspicions.

So can we drop the whole: "TRL is better because it comes from source material written by someone who went to war" bullshit?

JimRochester

Thin Red Line was supposed to be this deep sophisticated thinking man's war picture while SPR is overly simplistic. I tried watching Thin Red Line twice and fell asleep both times (in the middle of the day). The back-story to SPR is simplistic however as a war movie buff I'll admit many of the plots are just an excuse to move the characters from one battle to another.

Count me as another vote for thinking Band Of Brothers was better than either of them. ALthough admittedly they started with a strong book of the same name and being a mini-series they had the time to develop multiple stories and characters that a 2.5 hour movie just can't

FRwL

SPR's cliched ridden blockbuster style wouldnt be so bad without the flag waving.

covenant

Meh...the folks that fought WW2 were a patriotic lot....

FRwL

Yeah but some movies arent like Hell is for Heroes.

Shazam

JimRochester

Damn those people who fight for flag and country! Who the hell do they think they are anyway?! Showoffs! Everyone should be there because they were drafted, and they should hate every minute of it, even the part with the hookers.

Solid Snake

I dunno...I feel fine w/ the Flag waving I guess...it was WW2. I think it's ok to do that in THAT context for the most part. Flag of Our Fathers wasn't like that.

dvdjunkie32

Obviously, you forgot the elements that make SPR great. The movie offers a window back in time to get a sense of how it felt to land on Normany and fight in this war. The sound effects alone were amazing like when they hear the monsterous groan of a German panzer tank approaching.

Also, as a sufferer of tinnitus, one scene perfectly renders the ear ringing sound (which I have to hear on a daily basis) when a grenade goes off nearby.

Mabuse

I don't mind the flag waving. You guys don't seem to understand it. The flag is photographed with the sun behind it so it looks paper thin and fragile and the colors are completely bleached out (in keeping with the color scheme of the whole film). The opening and closing flag shots of SPR seem to be indicating the fragility of the flag, not some rah-rah let's have a parade, stars and stripes forever thing.

TTRL is better than SPR by a mile. SPR's first 30 minutes are a landmark, the rest of the film is very cliched war movie stuff. Also, nobody would be comparing these two if they didn't come out in the same year. Where's the Longest Day vs. Saving Private Ryan thread?

superdeluxe

saving private ryan

Yeti4623

The Thin Red Line has better cinematography, and better direction. Otherwise, I prefer SPR.

Supermallet

Again, no one is arguing that the opening sequence is bad. It's the rest of the movie that bogs down an amazing introduction.

Supermallet

Because of this thread, I picked up the Kelly's Heroes/Where Eagles Dare Blu-ray double pack, and I've rewatched Where Eagles Dare for the first time in a long time. I forgot how fantastic this movie is. Slow to start, but the tension really ramps up, and Burton and Eastwood are tremendous. Tom Hanks can't touch either of them, and I think Tom Hanks is great. But the movie has stupendous action, hot ladies, real suspense, and iconic actors in awesome roles. I'll take Where Eagles Dare over ten Saving Private Ryans.