reality Check

Rating: 10/10 (21 April 2005)

Hey guys, all those of you who say "Saving Private Ryan was better". Of course it was (in some ways).
But it was also filmed 21 years later, in a modern GCI reality, with this film as one of the foundation stone on which it was built.
SPR used obvious cardboard tanks and Hollywood "stars". COI used real equipment and actors who could act, not just pose.
COI did the action shots with real effects, real explosions. SPR did a lot with digital technology. Of course it's a snappier, smoother visual experience, but it has 2 decades of heritage and technology to prop it up.
In my Opinion, COI is one of the 3 best war films of all time. Apocalypse Now had a huge budget in the modern era - COI had 5 yugoslav tanks, and comes a VERY close second. {Don't ask me to pick the third, right now. I have several options, but COI and An are head and shoulders above the rest.} Steiner is a performance of a lifetime for Coburn - should've been an Oscar, IMHO.
This is one of those films I watch several times a year, as a calibration for the other stuff, and for pure fun.
Buy it, watch it, and watch it again, and again...