It's obvious that this film drew inspiration from the massive success that was Saving Private Ryan, and the moments where that inspiration is on display make up its strongest quality - the blunt display of the horrors of war, both in a broad sense and in how it affects the individual. The most obvious similarity would be that the action set pieces are very well-executed, from the vast firefights to the smaller scale scene where prisoners are battling it out in a fight pit. The supporting characters are not very fleshed out (in contrast to Saving Private Ryan's strong ensemble cast) but I think that comes down to a difference in philosophy. This film is more singularly focused on the relationship of the two brothers, and you really get a sense of their fears and uncertainties and the progressive strain it all puts on their relationship.
My issues lie in other areas, particularly in the areas where I wish the film stood more firmly on the Spielbergian side of things. Instead of remaining tonally similar to Saving Private Ryan, it feels like it drew inspiration from another blockbuster filmmaker's smash hit from a few years prior - Titanic. Dripping with a Cameron-esque schmaltzy flare, the constantly swelling score, over-expository dialogue and some plot contrivances are drawbacks to what was otherwise a strong character drama. The fact that it even possesses the exact same structure (present day opening/flashback main narrative/present day ending/one final flashback) of Titanic is turning me into a conspiracy theorist and is making me wonder if in a butterfly effect scenario that this would have been a stronger film had that movie imitated its namesake and not made the voyage overseas.
It's obvious that this film drew inspiration from the massive success that was Saving Private Ryan, and the moments where that inspiration is on display make up its strongest quality - the blunt display of the horrors of war, both in a broad sense and in how it affects the individual. The most obvious similarity would be that the action set pieces are very well-executed, from the vast firefights to the smaller scale scene where prisoners are battling it out in a fight pit. The supporting characters are not very fleshed out (in contrast to Saving Private Ryan's strong ensemble cast) but I think that comes down to a difference in philosophy. This film is more singularly focused on the relationship of the two brothers, and you really get a sense of their fears and uncertainties and the progressive strain it all puts on their relationship.
My issues lie in other areas, particularly in the areas where I wish the film stood more firmly on the Spielbergian side of things. Instead of remaining tonally similar to Saving Private Ryan, it feels like it drew inspiration from another blockbuster filmmaker's smash hit from a few years prior - Titanic. Dripping with a Cameron-esque schmaltzy flare, the constantly swelling score, over-expository dialogue and some plot contrivances are drawbacks to what was otherwise a strong character drama. The fact that it even possesses the exact same structure (present day opening/flashback main narrative/present day ending/one final flashback) of Titanic is turning me into a conspiracy theorist and is making me wonder if in a butterfly effect scenario that this would have been a stronger film had that movie imitated its namesake and not made the voyage overseas.
