Saving Private Ryan(1998) or Apocalypse Now(1979)?

Apocalypse Now is more a journey into madness. There are more amazing, memorable moments in it than there are in SPR. More great quotes, too.

Saving Private Ryan is a dull movie with a couple great scenes. Apocalypse Now is a great movie with a couple dull scenes. And the best parts of AN are way, way better than the best parts of SPR.

This is a very easy choice.

I was more hyped to see Apocalypse Now and found it to be a great movie, but overall I was more entertained by Saving Private Ryan. Although Apocalypse Now steals the show for best one scene.

Spr was the more entertaining movie to me.

I didn't really care for Apocalypse Now. Heart of Darkness by Conrad was a pretty trash novel to begin with (in my opinion), and Apocalypse Now failed to engage me after the first act, though maybe I'll like it more with a rewatch. Saving Private Ryan, while occasionally suffering from Hollywood war tropes, did have very visceral war scenes, and I think it painted the tone of WWII for me as a young kid watching it, and probably spurred my personal interest in war history. I'm leaning more towards SPR, though that might just be nostalgia speaking.

Overall though, Spielberg and Hanks would eventually do way better with Band of Brothers, which I think blows both films out the proverbial water.

Apocalypse Now

Saving Private Ryan all day, every day, and twice on Sunday. Apocalypse now was a frigging joke. Sure it was a great movie if you wanted to make the troops in Vietnam look like they had no idea what they were doing and were let by a bunch of psychopaths. There was a LOT wrong with our involvement in Vietnam but that movie was trying to make it look like it was something it wasn't. Yep, let's go shoot up a Ville so we can surf. Sure.

What happened??? I thought you liked Apocalypse Now

Saving Private Ryan. D-Day/Normandy was forever burned into my brain because of this film

SPR.

I voted for Saving Private Ryan, it was way more realistic and cruder, amputations, raw flesh, legs and arms flying across the battlefield, the plot was simply brilliant too.

American and allied blood was spread on European soil and it will for all the eternity be there and symbolize the National Socialist demise on western Europe and to me as a German, it symbolizes the liberation of the German folk from the National Socialists, the lamentable tragedy where our Wehrmacht had to follow the retrograde National Socialist orders and stay to their duty, in order to defend the German folk.

Honorable soldiers which died during the WW2, only the ones which fought for a noble purpose, are eternal people.

I think SPR goes downhill after the beach landing scene. Apocalypse Now doesn't open as strongly, but becomes much more satisfying as the story unfolds. And Colonel Kurtz is one of the most intriguing film characters I've ever encountered.

I've not seen Apocalypse Now in full, but as of right now, Saving Private Ryan is the best out of the two. That beginning Normandy scene blew me away (no pun intended) as a kid, because it's based on history and ultra realistic, and it's one of my favorite movies. I watch it every Veterans Day, as well as Band of Brothers and The Pacific.