re: Gun to your head: Saving Private Ryan or Shawshank

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I am going to get crucified for this but I have always found Black Hawk Down to be one of the most overrated war movies out there.

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One advantage I had was that, as a fan of Bowden, I read the book prior - so I could just enjoy the film.

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Maybe I'm just not a fan of Ridley Scott

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And, again, I am - he's my favorite director.

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maybe I'm just not a fan of slightly contemporary war movies

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As a fan of war movies, in general, I agree that the modern, gritty take, while appreciated, is somewhat more pedestrian than the classics, and I mean 12 O'Clock High, Sands of Iwo Jima, The Longest Day, Patton, and even as late as A Bridge Too Far, are all just wonderful pieces of art, while newer war movies, particularly since SPR, try to "out realism" each other, at the expense of the story. The follow-on project to SPR, Band of Brothers, although a television series, does an excellent job of balancing that realism, with the older style of war movie storytelling - and of course they had 10 hours to do it.

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I didn't really care too much for Hartnett's acting,

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I thought he did an okay job, but, seriously, this was the powers-that-be teeing him up for big things and he fumbled it. I agree with you generally, that among the other performances, certainly compared to superior performances by Sizemore, Bana, Eldard, and even McGregor in a smaller role than we are accustomed for him, Hartnett was just so-so.

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nor did I care much for the accents put on my Jason Issacs, Eric Bana, and Orlando Bloom - even though he was in the film for like two or three scenes.

Maybe had I seen the movie when it first came out, before I was familiar with most of the actors in the film, I wouldn't have been so annoyed by their accents, but their voices grated on me after a while.

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I think you've correctly diagnosed this as a personal problem specific to you, independent from the quality of the final product.

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I also loved how Ridley Scott seemingly raided the set of Pearl Harbor for a lot of his actors.

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It is extremely common for cadres of people to work together on Hollywood productions. I didn't care for Pearl Harbor at all, so I don't think this fact is significant.