Cinema of 1998
Cinema of 1998 brought audiences one of the decade’s defining war films: Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan. Its harrowing Normandy landing sequence set a new standard for realism and cinematic immersion, while Terrence Malick’s return with The Thin Red Line offered a poetic, philosophical counterpoint. On the awards stage, Shakespeare also had his moment with John Madden’s Shakespeare in Love taking the Oscars’ top prize.
International cinema delivered strikingly diverse highlights. In Iran, Samira Makhmalbaf stunned with her debut The Apple, signaling a new generation of filmmakers following in her father’s footsteps. Meanwhile, in East Asia, Hideo Nakata’s Ringu reinvented horror with a minimalist yet haunting approach, sparking a wave of J-horror that would influence the world.
Beyond the festival circuit and prestige titles, 1998 was rich in inventive and enduring works. The Coen Brothers’ The Big Lebowski became a cult phenomenon, while Todd Solondz’s Happiness provoked and unsettled with its darkly comic lens on suburban malaise. Together, these films illustrate how 1998 captured cinema’s dual power: to reach mass audiences with spectacle and to challenge them with audacious artistry.