I actually think they made the right choice between SPR and SIL. The former trod over ground much travelled over previously but the latter had the wit of an Oscar Wilde play. The script of SPR really was second rate. They did the right thing by honoring Spielberg, who's brilliant direction resuced what could have been a completely ordinary war movie.
Hey, Borges.
Say what you will about the presence of the "wit of an Oscar Wilde play" in SIL (and it was a well-acted, superb entertainment), but Saving Private Ryan just moved me on a deeper, more emotional level. Though it did tread very familiar ground, I thought it took a familiar story (the plight of WW2 soldiers and the horror of warfare) and made it new again by infusing it for the first time with the bloody, gritty reality it deserved. There was truly the feeling in SPR that any one of the 8 could have died at any moment, and the final passages made me tear up by revealing the simplest truth of any war film I've ever seen. "Just tell me I've led a good life, tell me that it was worth it". No ammount of star power and glitz can shake a moment like that from my heart.