Friday, June 3, 2011

A Great War Debate: Saving Private Ryan vs. The Thin Red Line

In the summer of 1998, American movie audiences were completely thrown off guard by the power of a war epic called Saving Private Ryan.  We’d all heard the hype: the eye-shielding opening scene, the gut-wrenching emotional drama, the subtle humor, and that kid who just won an Oscar for writing Good Will Hunting.  Hype is to film what kryptonite is to Superman; it can be irreversibly damaging.  Our expectations exceed their highest point, and we’re ultimately let down by the finished product.

Saving Private Ryan was not one of those movies.  It was, and remains, a perfect war film.  At the time of its release, it was the best war film, since, what… Platoon? And the best WWII film, since, what… Patton?  Which is to say, it was arguably the best war film ever made.  Steven Spielberg had done it again.  Just like he tackled the Holocaust in a way no one had seen, he had stormed the beaches of Normandy in a way no one was ready for.  And then, a few short months later, something odd happened. 
Storming the beach in Saving Private Ryan
In December of 1998, Terrence Malick released The Thin Red Line, his first film in 20 years.  The Thin Red Line was the antithesis of Saving Private Ryan.  It was slow and poetic and beautiful and, let’s just say it, kind of confusing.  But it was also undeniably brilliant.  As one critic said, The Thin Red Line was “the thinking man's war film.”

Saving Private Ryan is everything a great war film should be.  It has epic battle sequences, a heroic lead star, a strong supporting cast, mild humor to break the tension, and a tightly-wrapped conclusion.  It’s also, dare I say, rather conventional.  The plot is its only real function.  Eight soldiers are sent to find one man and send him home.  One by one, the men get picked off via an elaborate, individual death scene (mostly in the final battle), and, eventually, Private Ryan is safely sent home. 

It took me 12 words to describe the entire plot of Saving Private Ryan, but it’d take me 12 pages to describe the plot of The Thin Red Line, mainly because, there isn’t one. 
An anonymous soldier in The Thin Red Line
Whereas Saving Private Ryan is essentially the aftermath of a 20-minute battle scene, The Thin Red Line IS the battle scene, both literally and figuratively.  The main battle in The Thin Red Line, save a few breaks, takes up a bulk of the three hour film, as we witness the attack from start to finish.  Saving Private Ryan, rather brilliantly, throws us, without warning, onto Omaha Beach.  The Thin Red Line waits patiently with us as the soldiers grimly, and tediously, prepare for certain death.

In The Thin Red Line, we see the sun rise over a doomed hill on Guadalcanal. “Rosy-fingered dawn,” Nick Nolte’s angered, prepared Lt. Col. Tall, tells Elias Koteas’ fatherly, God-fearing Captain Staros before the battle.  Minutes later, hundreds of soldiers stealthily move up the hill, hiding as best they can behind tall blades of grass.  Minutes later, a young officer (Jared Leto), silently orders two Privates up the hill to their eventual death.  Leto has not one speaking line in the film, but his face says volumes as his two men are gunned down by soldiers in a hidden bunker. Seconds later, chaos ensues, and it never lets up.

Saving Private Ryan is bookended with two of the best-staged battles in film history.  Its violence is meant to shock, not to propel the story.  Guts spill out, a soldier looks for his arm, a knife is slowly eased into a chest, and so on.

Spielberg's violence

Malick's violence
Terrence Malick isn’t at all concerned with violence.  The war is the violence, not the actual dying.  So why is it that, with very little blood shown, The Thin Red Line is the more disturbing of the two films?  Simple.  Because we actually know, and grow to care about, the soldiers in Malick’s film.  But how is that?  We spend far more time with the Saving Private Ryan characters, and actually get to know their names and their personal histories.  Whereas in The Thin Red Line, some main characters only grace the screen for a single scene, others don’t even speak.

To be honest, I’m not sure how Malick pulls this off. I’m not sure how the most devastating scene of both films occurs when a soldier reads a letter from his wife in The Thin Red Line.  I’m not sure how the hardest scene to watch of both films is a soldier crying in the rain in The Thin Red Line.  I’m not sure how the most powerful scene of both films is Nolte and Koteas arguing with each other through the radio.

I’m not quite sure how Terrence Malick does it, he just…does.

Obviously, Saving Private Ryan was the successor of the two films.  It grossed $216 million, won five Oscars and remains a staple for Veteran’s Day viewing on broadcast TV.  The Thin Red Line made $36 million, won no Oscars and has never aired on broadcast TV.  And I understand why.  As I mentioned earlier, The Thin Red Line, upon first (or second, or third) viewing, is pretty damn confusing.  The persistent narration is done by a number of actors, and we’re never really quite sure who’s talking.  There’s no plot, no central character, no smooth resolution; it’s everything a war film shouldn’t be. 
Saving Private Ryan boasted big names, like Tom Hanks

The Thin Red Line's relative unknowns, like Elias Koteas, were as important as the film's big stars 
And that’s the point.  Malick doesn’t want you to know who’s doing the talking, or who the main character is.  The soldier is the main character.  The war is the story.  I once spoke to a WWII veteran who was, understandably, disturbed by Saving Private Ryan’s content, but loved the film nonetheless.  I urged him to watch The Thin Red Line.  After his viewing, his response was as follows:  “Well, I wasn’t exactly sure what the hell was going on in that movie, but The Thin Red Line is the only movie I’ve seen that accurately displays the hell of war.  That’s exactly how it is.”

Saving Private Ryan is a perfect war film, one of the best ever made.  The Thin Red Line is a perfect film, and the best war film ever made.  One is great with its tradition, while the other is masterful with its alternative style.

Earlier, I mentioned a powerful scene in The Thin Red Line between Nick Nolte’s Lt. Col. Tall and Elias Koteas’ Cpt. Staros.  Tall, with volcanic fury, orders Staros repeatedly to move up the front of the hill and attack a bunker.  Staros, knowing this order to be certain death, refuses to accept Tall’s order.  The subsequent five minutes are some of the finest moments ever committed to film.  At the end of the scene, Staros puts the radio down and quickly speaks a line in Greek.

We are not given subtitles. We are not given a meaning.  The soldiers around him have no idea what he said, and neither should we.  Exactly. 

54 comments:

  1. I want you to know that because of this blog post, I watched The Thin Red Line. I am a huge fan of Saving Private Ryan, and like you mention, The Thin Red line didn't really grab me at first. But I went back and watched it a week later and am now haunted by it. The director's use of violence is much more bone deep than in Saving Private Ryan. You're right, the emotional violence is worse than the blood and the guts. Without this post, I don't think I wouldve seen The Thin Red Line.

    Keep them coming.

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    1. Well said. I am mesmorized by WWII and have an extensive bluray collection. I have seen SPR so many times that I could literally quote the film. I had seen TRL once before, and I guess I was expecting something similar to SPR. My initial feelings about TLR were kinda on the fence. I wasn't in love w it, but I certainly didn't dislike it. I finally came across TRL Criterion Collection bluray and I snatched it up immediately. After watching TRL a 2nd time, I finally saw the brilliance in the film. First of all, obviously, TRL is a Pacific theatre battle, whereas SPR was a European theatre battle. The major diff between the two films, beside the terrain, was TRL puts a large emphasis on the emotional effect that warfare has on individual soldiers as well as the collective. TRL def puts u inside the belly of the beast, its just a different view.

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    2. Hell yeah, it really does put you right in there. Well said.

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  2. Like you said both movies are perfect. Its crazy to think how they both describe WWII but in completely different ways. I consider Malick to be a favorite director of mine. Have you seen his other films?

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  3. @FILMclatter Oh yeah, I've seen all of his films many many times, and I love them all. The Thin Red Line remains my favorite. A flawless masterpiece. What's your fave?

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  4. I fell upon this post again and discovered an unanswered question for me. My bad. I could have just said I had been thinking about it for all these months because I am still not sure of my answer. I guess if I have to I would have to say its a 3-way tie between The Thin Red Line, The Tree of Life and Badlands. There you go :)

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  5. I have both films on blu ray, and although saving private ryan is an amazing transfer, the thin red line is possibly one of the best transfers I've ever seen, it is jaw droppingly beautiful in parts.

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    1. Totally agree. That's one of my most cherished Criterion Blu-Rays. It's heavenly. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

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  6. The thin red line and badlands stand out for me as my favorite malick films. i saw both saving private ryan and the thin red line when i was 12 in theaters. and i would have to say as i kid i liked saving private ryan, it feels faster. as an adult i much prefer the complex emotional drama that plays out internally in the characters of the thin red line .

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    1. Yep, couldn't agree more with this. Funny, I was 12 as well when I saw Saving Private Ryan in the theater for the first time. A few months later, I saw TTRL, and basically deduced what you did: SPR is a better film for a 12 year old. But yeah man, as time passed, TTRL just became invaluable to me. A truly amazing cinematic feat.

      Thanks so much for reading and commenting. Let me know if you have a blog I can scope out!

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  7. I saw Saving Private Ryan when it came out in theaters. It was a jarring, gut wrenching experience. The perfect inheritor to all those John Wayne films I saw growing up. You always new that the violence in a Wayne film was lacking, but there was that same gritty 'can do' that SPR has.

    That said I never want to see SPR again.

    The Thin Red Line has grown on me. In some ways It feels like a rip off of Normal Mailers book "The Naked and the Dead" 1947 vs 1962 for the book TTRL, lots of cutaways to interior dialog as instead of before the war recollections. In any case it brings up personal element of the emotional exhaustion of war. Its humanity is why I I do sometimes re watch it.

    Oh and don't bother with TNATD 1958 movie.

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    1. Hey there, thanks so much for stopping by and leaving such an insight comment. I'm glad to hear TTRL has grown on you. Your notion of "it brings up personal element of the emotional exhaustion of war" is something I could not agree more with. I think that is chiefly what makes it so effective. I just absolutely love that film.

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  8. Alex...you hit the nail on the head with this blog post...I've been compelled to go back and watch The Thin Red Line maybe a dozen times (sick, I know) whiie I've just seen Saving Private Ryan twice or so (though I also love that film). The most moving scene for me however is the one where the American's are rushing in, non-stop, overrunning the Japanese post, shooting the terrified Japanese soldiers as they go...this emotion, no doubt abetted by the crescendo of "Journey to the Line", from .Hans Zimmer's great score [that also gets heavy rotation on my IPOD...

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    1. Thanks so much for the comment. I can't even count how many times I've seen TTRL. Upwards of 25, for sure. I love the beauty of that film. That scene you mentioned is remarkable because it dares us to understand the horror of the Japanese as well. A rarity among American-made horror films.

      And yeah, nothing against SPR, that is a great film in its own right.

      Oh, and "Journey to the Line" is incredible.

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  9. I still find I can instantly call to mind so many scenes and sounds from Malick's masterpiece, such is its hypnotic, beautiful and awesome power. SPR on the other hand, apart from the Omaha landing, just all feels too familiar. You could be watching an episode of my childhood favourite "Combat" but with a much bigger budget and today's film making technology. All the genre conventions are the same. I've always thought it odd too that after securing Omaha a lot of exposition takes place as Capt Miller's squad walks through a paddock ahead of the Allied advance - behind enemy lines - but you'd think they were just out for a Sunday stroll. Anyway, great blog piece. Just a couple of final observations on "The Thin Red Line". I love the sound of the wind through the Kunai grass, Miranda Otto has never looked lovelier, Nick Nolte should have won an Oscar and I also just absolutely love this film.

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    1. Hey Andrew, thanks for stopping by and leaving such an insightful comment. I've always been curious about that post-Omaha battle sequence in SPR as well. They all just look so relaxed, which I've always found odd. But really, I agree with everything you said here. The older I get, the more familiar SPR feels, whereas TTRL is always new to me. It's one of my favorite films, for all the reasons you mentioned. And many, many more.

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  10. I respect your opinion, but I have to disagree. I thought SPR was far superior to TTRL, Which left me a little cold. But it's your opinion, who am I to say your wrong.

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    1. Thanks for the thoughtful comment. It's always nice to hear that, although you disagree, you're still able to see my side of it. Thanks again, really.

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  11. Nick Nolte delivers one of the best performances ever!

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  12. I watched Saving Private Ryan one, a great movie, and I liked it, and wont watched it for the second time. However, I watched The Thin Red Line multiple times, and might like to see more ...

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  13. Always loved Malick's masterwork, but sadly all I ever heard about Saving Private Ryan, from friends and especially close family, was that it was boring and pretty darn terrible (Im British, btw). I built it up as something awful, delaying watching it at any time I could. Now I have, going into it with fresh eyes and an optimistic heart. Bar one great scene ("mama"). I hated it. Its a great war film, sure, an excellent gung-ho ACTION film- but the violence was laughable (leg on Omaha), the plot was so conventional it hurt and the fact Spielberg- a man whom had proven tact and compassion with his previous projects- pretentiously presented war as hellish and morally straining in the first 20 minutes, and then has the balls to discard this throughout the rest of the film, especially the devil-may-care ending.

    No doubt its a good film, but the Thin Red Line is my third favourite film of all time, and IMO the best war film after 'Come & See' (Which you should totally see)

    Excellent essay its all spot on :)

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    1. First off, Come & See, I'm on it.

      I agree with most everything you said here. I like SPR more than you, but I do agree that it doesn't live up to those first 20 minutes, but holy god, what a mesmerizing 20 minutes those are. I think it slips into something conventional and gung-ho, reminiscent of the older war films Spielberg idolized as a child.

      It's funny what time does to movies. I think time has proven that TTRL is the more loved film, but when it was released barely anyone was talking about it.

      Thanks for reading and commenting on such an old post. I hadn't looked at this essay in years!

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    2. Just wondered if you'd got around to Come & See. Was wandering through your essays (beautiful piece on Robin Williams, BTW) and thought why not just ask? :)

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    3. Ahh shit, totally forgot. But I just moved it to the top of my watchlist. I'll report back soon! Thanks for reading some of the essays!

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  14. I find three major differences between the two:

    1. SPR feels like actors portraying soldiers in a technically perfect war film. TTRL feels like people getting shot at while being just as confused as we are about what the fuck is going on. Who lives? Who dies? In the SPR, you might be able to predict it. In TTRL, you're too busy crouching behind your seat to worry about such stupid things.

    2. For a US audience, I think the Pacific Theater is a little less familiar than the European, so that adds to the unknown.

    3. SPR shows us (graphically) that war is hell. TTRL makes us feel that war is hell, and reminds us that dying quickly may not be the worst of all bad options.

    The best thing about SPR, for me, is that it got Hanks and Spielberg going, and they then made the better mini-series Band Of Brothers. And then they made the infinitely better mini-series The Pacific.

    The following Best Picture Oscar was an odd one, and a turning point for me. These two war films, two QEI films (Shakespeare In Love and the much better Elizabeth), and Life Is Beautiful. The worst of the five won and I stopped caring about awards shows.

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    1. 1. Yes, yes, fucking YES.
      2. For sure.
      3. Again, yes.

      A lot of my stock in awards shows died the day Shakespeare in Love won too. Up until then, no one really knew it was for sale, but Weinstein bought it. What a shame.

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  15. My father fought in the Solomon Islands in WW2 and saw both movies before he died - is opinion was TTRL was infinitely better depiction of the horror of war - along with Stalingrad

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    1. Thanks so much for the personal comment. Sorry your father has passed, but I love hearing his insight about these two films.

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  16. The Thin Red Line is one of the finest movies ever made.

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  17. First time I saw TTRL I just couldn't stop thinking about it. The best movies are those that when they are over you just go home and ask yourself: what did just happened? I've seen TTRL many times and each time I see it I discover new things. There are many themes running through the background. Believing or not believing in God is one of them.
    Witt: You're wrong, there, Top: I've seen another world. Sometimes I think it was just my imagination.
    Welsh: Well, then you've seen things I never will.
    Then, there is the theme of nature. Nature versus man. There are scenes through the movie that show how good or cruel nature can be. Beautiful scenes of children swimming on the sea....and a cobra trying to bite a soldier during the heat of the battle. And at the end, after all the destruction, a palm tree growing out of a coconut.
    And then there is the colors....vibrant reds and yellows vs. blue and dark. All his films play with light and darkness.
    I'm sure I'm missing some but this movie is a monumental piece of art. I think it goes beyond being just a war movie.

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    1. Love this comment. Totally agree. What a monumental achievement this film is. One of my all-time favorites.

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  18. The Thin Red Line holds a similar place in my heart, too. It's not a perfect film. The final 40 minutes could be lopped off without much sacrifice. And at times it toes the line between profundity and pretension, but that's the cost of doing business when you tackle the sorts of existential themes Mallick has dedicated his career to examining. It's biggest downfall, however, is something you alluded to: the timing of its release. It will always be "that other WW2 movie". Some of of this is simply the product of profile, rather than quality. Mallick's project is the far superior movie, IMO. But at the same time, some of this prejudice does speak to those qualities that make Saving Private Ryan so memorable.

    The battle scenes in TRL are comfortably above average, at least. The extended sequence portraying the siege on the Japanese held hill has to be in the canon for single battle depictions, and as the centre piece of the movie is more than capable of carrying the weight necessary to allow the film as a whole to succeed. But there are moments during that sequence that stick out, and not in a good way. The timed explosions and the way soldiers are thrown across the screen as shells detonate around them. Moments like these -- and it needs be said, there aren't many -- seem strangely at odds with the gravity of both the rest of the action and the mood of the film in general. It's almost *silly* somehow. That's Saving Private Ryan. That's Spielberg. That's the landing at Omaha Beach. That sequence challenged notions of what film was capable of in terms of bringing war to life. In its wake, shots that would have previously been regarded as flirting with that limit, shots like the aforementioned moments in TRL, may now been seen as a let down.

    I also think your juxtaposition of the two stills is unfair. It gives the impression that SPR is merely a standard war movie that relies on the graphic nature of the toll taken on men to make its point, while TRL is a far fresher, nuanced approach. There *is* truth in this, but that picture fails to grant the film it's due credit. It's not the fact that we see men with their limbs blown off that sets the landing scene apart. It's the way those men do things like casually search for their dismembered limb, as if they were looking for a lost contact lens, picking one up and trying it on for size only to decide that it's not the *their* arm and throw it back on the heap. The incongruity of such actions with the utter chaos around them - an incongruity we feel all the deeper because of Spielberg's ability to place us in the middle of it - is the scene's trademark.

    One final thought about The Thin Red Line, since I've spent most of this comment taking it apart. My favourite shot remains the movie's very first: the crocodile (alligator?) descending into the swampy waters. It's such a gorgeous, powerful, foreboding image that both perfectly foreshadows the tragic calamity to come while also establishing one of the movie's main themes: the dichotomy between war and nature. But most of all, I love how the image can be read two ways. Initially, my reaction was to see the croc as a symbol of the violence to come, the evils of war. But then you realize that it's in retreat, taking refuge instead of in attack. But refuge from what? War, I guess. The croc is nature's way of communicating with us, making us aware of the fact that war is a concept that is hostile to the very essence of nature itself. The croc can sense the warships approaching. It know what's coming. And like nature, wants no part of it.

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    1. Love this comment, thank you so much for leaving it. Love your dissection of The Thin Red Line's opening shot. Very keen insight. And in case you didn't get my tweet, I have to manually approve comments on posts that are more than 10 days old. This drastically helps reduce the amount of spam comments that appear on the site. Thanks again!

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  19. Finally watched it, amazing movie. The greatest 3rd greatest war film I have ever seen.

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  20. Wonderful, shall watch Thin Red Line tomorrow.

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  21. I love war films, ttrl is the 2001 a space odyssey of war films to me....most of my (or your) dumb friends may hate it, but you know deep down in your soul you just saw something special and truly moving. Utterly original.

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    1. Love this comment. I agree, TTRL is the 2001 of war films. So well said. That movie really shows the true hell of war. By long and far the finest war film ever made.

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  22. What other war movie has moments of zen poetry when the camera focuses on, at times, extended, beautiful shots of the surrounding nature in the midst of a brutal, bloody conflict

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  23. TTRL is outstanding,mesmerising and absorbing, second to...Das Boot - with regards to War Movies. That being said what makes Boot the first is music, on top of other virtues. Klaus Doldinger added like 50% to value of the film. Remove his music and try to watch, still good but nowhere to peak. I am not sure whether Malick could not embed or wasn't aware of that variable.
    SPR - I ve seen it once, enough in this life.

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    1. I love this! Thanks for this comment, and now I definitely need to rewatch Das Boot.

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  24. Have had this film at number 1 in my top 100 films from the time I decided to jot down my top 100 films 20 odd years ago (I had a lot more time on my hands back then). It’s still my number 1. A haunting, beautiful yet terrifying film that gives an incredible insight into the horror that is war.

    Really appreciate the comments above from those who watched these films with actual WW2 vets who said TTRL was the more accurate depiction.

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    1. Thanks so much for this. TTRL is firmly in my top 15 films ever made. I watch it a few times a year because phrases like, "What is this war in the heart of nature?" creep into my head, and I know it's time for a rewatch. Perfect cinema.

      And yep, obviously SPR is a far more seen film, but I work with Veterans every day, and the ones who have seen TTRL say it is closest to the emotional hell of war. This and Platoon.

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