1. Shakespeare in Love (1998)
John Madden did not win Best Director. Steven Spielberg did for "Saving Private Ryan." There were at least two nominees more deserving of Best Picture: "Saving Private Ryan" and "The Thin Red Line." The one more deserving of the two and thus most deserving of Best Picture was "Saving Private Ryan." Both are World War II movies. But Malick's movie didn't have nearly the amount of grit that Spielberg had in his opus. There's very little grit and bleakness in "The Thin Red Line." Janusz Kaminski rightfully won Best Cinematography. The color saturation was reduced by 60%, making it significantly bleaker than "The Thin Red Line." Scenes not on the battlefield were steady and composed. Amidst gunfire and explosions, Spielberg utilized something better than a shaky handheld camera like Paul Greengrass did in "Green Zone." He attached drills to the side of the camera and turned them on while filming. This allowed the camera to remain mostly steady, but with a rumbling effect that gives the sense of a soldier trembling and falls short of disorienting the viewer. The movie runs a little under three hours. This is very key to telling the story. It starts out in the present day at the Normandy American Cemetery and Memorial in Normandy, France. We are then brought back to June 6, 1944. It's D-Day and American troops land at Omaha Beach for the Invasion of Normandy. After many have been slaughtered by German soldiers, Captain John H. Miller (Tom Hanks) and Charlie Company get past the first line of defense. The movie goes back and forth between intense warfare and the ongoing search of Private James Francis Ryan, with battlefield scenes lasting roughly from five to 30 minutes. Capt. Miller and his group of soldiers assigned to find Ryan consist of an A-list ensemble cast. Other big name A-listers pop up in cameos throughout the movie. This allows the audience to guess which A-list actor would appear at some point to be James Ryan (alive or dead). The group travels by foot, ever so slowly not knowing when or where they would find Ryan, if at all. One shot captures the essence of the story and its mood. After getting some sleep in a church, they leave in the middle of the night. As they walk across a field in single file with bombs flashing miles behind them, nothing is known about what lies ahead. They will stop at nothing and search endlessly, day and night, until either they are all dead or they have located James Francis Ryan, who gets to go home to Iowa.