Saving Private Ryan vs. The Thin Red Line (1998): Both Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line are set in World War II, yet these films could not be more different from one another in tone and execution. Featuring a cast that mixed unknown actors with the likes of George Clooney, Adrien Brody
and Jim Caviezel, Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line distinguished itself with a non-linear narrative, haunting, prominent score and shifting perspectives. Though well made, TTRL was too impressionistic for most: It flopped at the box office, earning less than the 52 million it cost to make the picture. As a Captain leading members of his battalion on a reluctant mission to find the last surviving brother of a family of soldiers, Tom Hanks is just one of a riveting cast of actors (including Paul Giamatti, Matt Damon, Edward Burns, Tom Sizemore, Vin Diesel, Ted Danson and Giovanni Ribisi) adeptly directed by Steven Spielberg in Saving Private Ryan. That film marched out of theaters with over 2oo million in box office earnings and was awarded five Academy Awards.

Bottom Line: Though we're fans of Malick's dreamy cinematic tone- poem, Saving Private Ryan's "mission is the man" and the result is gut-wrenchingly moving, intensely personal and altogether unforgettable.