I've read about this movie, and want to see it, but after reading on this board that Saving Private Ryan is better, I'm having second thoughts. So, is it great or a disappointment? Thanks in advance!
"The more I see, the less I know for sure." - John Lennon
Its a good movie. Great opening scenes, but overall i like better saving private ryan. Definitely you must watch it.
shareSPR is remarkable for it's graphic visualizations, especially the opening and last scenes. However some of the script was rather suspect. As you know it had a huge budget.
There are varying opinions of BR1. One has to remember that the budget was cut by 90% so that Fuller was doing everything on a shoestring. The Studio then hacked it to death.
Even so the BR1 stands up to SPR in many respects and, in areas, is better. Lee Marvin was excellent as a cynical WW1 veteran in charge of a lot of kids and there is real pathos in certain scenes. It was outstanding in it's portrayal of the emotions of the soldiers finding the concentration camp.
Because BR1 goes from North Africa to the end of the war one can see the change in attitude of the soldiers.
There is now a reconstructed version which was painstakingly put together by the film critic of, I think, Time magazine where they found much of the studio discarded footage and put it into a format as near to Fullers script (which was kept) as possible.
In my opinion TBR1 is a fine war film on it's own even with the butchering of budget and film but apparantly the reconstruction is excellent.
Hope this subjective opinion helps.