Different from SPR

Rating: 9/10 (5 December 2002)

I asked my grandfather who was an infantry sergeant part of the checkerboard division and fought both in the battle of the bulge and in the pacific and asked him which movie was better, Saving Private Ryan or The Thin Red Line.
He said SPR was more realistic to war sound and picture wise and what the soldiers went through, but it never showed the mental anguish the men suffered that TTRL portrayed. The Pacific was a different kind of war, fighting a determined enemy on unfamiliar ground. He had friends come out of guadalcanal that were never the same mentally and refuse to talk about their experiences. TTRL goes more into politics and mental thought. Sean Penn talks about how insignificant men were and that the whole war was about property. This is quite true when you look at the fact that we still have thousands of soldiers in the pacific and Japan protecting the empire of the USA
SPR showed War but it made it seem like it was something of an adventure and great heroics. TTRL showed what war mainly is, death, confusion, and horror.