Saving Private Ryan vs. Shakespeare in Love

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Between the two, I do believe the Oscar should have gone to Private Ryan...but it's still a hard film to watch.

This is a fun little matchup. I still remember the look of shock on people's faces when Shakespeare overtook Private Ryan. I may have lost my Oscar poll that year but it was worth it. Saving Private Ryan is a technical film. The cinematography is mesmerizing and disturbing. Spielberg really pushed the depiction of war on film to new levels. Shakespeare has heart though. The soldiers in Private Ryan just look for this one guy and, while the actors did a solid job, the search itself was not that compelling for me. Shakespeare was charming and romantic and also pushed genre forward by giving us the fictional account on how one genius created his masterpiece. It was a huge surprise that it won but not a surprise that it moved more people to vote for it.

I've never been a big Private Ryan fan. In fact, once I get going, I really tear into it with relish. Shakespeare in Love is one of the least-deserving (I believe) winners of the past few decades, but I still prefer it to Ryan, which is very manipulative and has a plot full of holes. That said, I think that The Thin Red Line should have won Best Picture in 1998. Even Martin Scorsese has said so...

Ryan is the victor here, but Shakespeare is still a great movie. Don't let the Oscar stigma convince you otherwise.

saving private ryan by a longshot. who gives a shit about shakespeare in love anymore?

The best picture of 1998 is... The Big Lebowski! But out of these two, Saving Private Ryan is far better than Shakespeare in Love.

Well, as far as the best film of 1998 goes, I'm a Rounders man. Between these two flicks, yeah, I definitely give the edge to Saving Private Ryan. Shakespeare in Love isn't far behind it, though.

Oscar Rematch: Both films are flawed in their own ways but SPR is super overrated. First 10 minutes is great. Everything that follows is not.

I loved Steven Spielberg. I'm glad Harvey is in jail after manipulating the Academy to give Best Picture to Shakespeare In Love instead of Saving Private Ryan which was a pretty good movie. I liked the acting, the visual style, the cinematography, editing, writing and music. My favorite part was Geoffrey Rush as the bumbling Philip Henslowe. But Saving Private Ryan is in my top 3 favorite movies of all time because of the way it portrayed the brutality of war. I am downright angry at the Oscars. And a lot of people would say Crash was the worst Best Picture winner ever because it hasn't aged well and beat Brokeback Mountain. But I would say that Shakespeare In Love was the worst Best Picture winner because it beat one of my new favorite movies of all time that I just saw yesterday. The sound design in Saving Private Ryan is the best I've ever heard in a film ever. The cinematography is the best I've ever seen because of the angles and the shaky camera and it works because it's in a war environment. The first and last 20 minutes are the best action sequences I've ever seen in a film. I am still shocked it lost Best Picture to Shakespeare In Love. To me, Saving Private Ryan is the true winner. And I think it's no shocker it beats Shakespeare In Love for this round by 999,000,000 miles.

Saving Private Ryan easily. I sat through Shakespeare in Love and it was pretty boring to me, but when I watched Saving Private Ryan, I was constantly on the edge of my seat. Will never understand how SIL won best picture over SPR