I know it’s nearly impossible to believe I had never
seen Saving Private Ryan. But for
nearly 15 years I have been actively avoiding watching this movie. Even for Sunday Showdown I avoided it –
watching movies all around it on the list rather than just suck it up and
watch. Netflix wondered if I was going to buy it, I had it so long.
In my defense, the one thing I remember about when Ryan came out in the theaters is my
Great-Aunt Wynell saying that my Great-Uncle Wendell (then in his late 70s) wouldn’t/couldn’t
see it because he had served in the Normandy Invasion. Saving
Private Ryan was a scene he knew all too well and had no desire to revisit
even fifty years later. My Uncle Wendell
passed away just this past Spring; definitely one of the Greatest Generation.
I didn’t want to think about young men like Uncle
Wendell dying. That’s why I had avoided Saving
Private Ryan. But I did watch it, and didn’t enjoy it, although I could
appreciate it for the snapshot of history it was. It’s hard for me to watch when
I know everybody ‘s going to die, it’s just a matter of when. Dealing with
suspense is not my strong suit.
But wait… isn’t there another movie I’m supposed to
be comparing this with?… Oh yeah, Monty
Python & the Holy Grail. Really, there’s no comparison, is there?
Although I can quote probably more lines from that
movie than any other film that doesn’t star Harrison Ford, Holy Grail just didn’t really do it for me. Maybe looking at it
through 40-year-old eyes rather than 20. Or maybe it’s just that Monty Python is kind of like
ex-boyfriends: better remembered with nostalgia than viewed in the present.
After 34 Showdowns, the score stands at AFI -18,
IMDb - 16
AFI’s
Top 100
|
IMDB’s
Top 100 (as of 1/1/12)
|
|
#58
|
The Gold Rush (1925)
|
Memento
(2000)
|
#68
|
Unforgiven
(1992)
|
The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948)
|
#69
|
Tootsie
(1982)
|
Modern Times (1936)
|
#71
|
Saving Private Ryan (1998)
|
Monty
Python & the Holy Grail (1975)
|
#72
|
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
|
Back
to the Future (1985)
|
#73
|
Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid
(1969)
|
The
Prestige (2006)
|
#74
|
Silence of the Lambs (1991)
|
Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)
|
#75
|
In
the Heat of the Night (1967)
|
Raging Bull (1980)
|
#76
|
Forrest
Gump (1994)
|
Cinema Paradiso (1988)
|
#77
|
All
the President’s Men (1976)
|
Singing In the Rain (1952)
|
#78
|
Modern
Times (1936)
|
Some Like it Hot (1959)
|
#79
|
The
Wild Bunch (1969)
|
The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)
|
#80
|
The
Apartment (1960)
|
Rashomon (1950)
|
#81
|
Spartacus
(1960)
|
All About Eve (1950)
|
#82
|
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927)
|
Amadeus
(1984)
|
#83
|
Titanic (1997)
|
Once
Upon A Time in America (1984)
|
#84
|
Easy
Rider (1969)
|
The Green Mile (1999)
|
#85
|
A
Night at the Opera (1935)
|
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
|
#86
|
Platoon (1986)
|
2001:
A Space Odyssey (1968)
|
#87
|
12
Angry Men (1957)
|
Inglorious Basterds (2009)
|
#88
|
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
|
The
Great Dictator (1940)
|
#89
|
Sixth Sense (1999)
|
Braveheart
(1995)
|
#90
|
Swing
Time (1936)
|
The Bicycle Thief (1948)
|
#91
|
Sophie’s Choice (1982)
|
The
Apartment (1960)
|
#92
|
Up (2009)
|
Goodfellas
(1990)
|
#93
|
The French Connection (1971)
|
Downfall
(2004)
|
#94
|
Pulp Fiction (1994)
|
Gran
Torino (2008)
|
#95
|
The
Last Picture Show (1971)
|
Metropolis (1927)
|
#96
|
Do The Right Thing (1989)
|
The
Sting (1973)
|
#97
|
Blade Runner (1982)
|
Gladiator
(2000)
|
#98
|
Yankee
Doodle Dandy (1942)
|
The Maltese Falcon (1941)
|
#99
|
Toy Story (1995)
|
Unforgiven
(1992)
|
#100
|
Ben Hur (1959)
|
The
Elephant Man (1980)
|
Next week, more WWII joy with Life is Beautiful vs. the never-pleasant-to-watch Clockwork Orange. Sigh. More Kubrick.
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