Best-bets for July 3: It’s a great movie night

1) “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), 6:05 p.m., Showtime; and/or “Top Gun” (1986), 8 p.m., Starz. For this 4th-of-July weekend, cable has some military movies that are strong on patriotic fervor. “Private Ryan” is a Steven Spielberg masterpiece that manages to be a strong human draman (with Matt Damon, shown here, Tom Hanks and more) and a stirring adventure. And in its 20-minute D-Day scene, it’s a reminder of the horror of war. “Top Gun” is a peacetime (mostly) tale of hot-shot pilots at work and play, brilliantly directed by Tony Scott. Read more…

1) “Saving Private Ryan” (1998), 6:05 p.m., Showtime; and/or “Top Gun” (1986), 8 p.m., Starz. For this 4th-of-July weekend, cable has some military movies that are strong on patriotic fervor. “Private Ryan” is a Steven Spielberg masterpiece that manages to be a strong human draman (with Matt Damon, shown here, Tom Hanks and more) and a stirring adventure. And in its 20-minute D-Day scene, it’s a reminder of the horror of war. “Top Gun” is a peacetime (mostly) tale of hot-shot pilots at work and play, brilliantly directed by Tony Scott.

2) More movies, cable. Apparently, we’re supposed to spend the night with action films. AMC has the “Die Hard” films in order, at 3, 6, 8:30 and 11:30 p.m. … Bravo has “The Bourne Identity” at 5 and 7:30 p.m., with its sequels at noon, 2:30 p.m., 10:02 p.m. and 12:32 a.m. … “Black Panther” is 6 p.m. on TBS … and at 8, Captain America is on both FX (“The First Avenger”) and USA (“Civil War,” repeating at 11). And if there’s no basketball, TNT will have the original “Star Wars” at 7:30 p.m.

3) Sports overload. There’s baseball at 7 p.m.ET on Fox, auto-racing at 8 on CBS and boxing at 9 on Showtime. And thrown into that crowded mix is pro basketball: Game six (if necessary) of the best-of-seven semi-finals is 8:30 p.m. ET on TNT, with the Milwaukee Bucks at the Atlanta Hawks.

4) “Saturday Night Live,” 11:29 p.m., NBC. Here’s a rerun of the season’s second episode. Bill Burr – not to be confused (please) with Bill Barr – hosts, with Jack White as the music guest.

5) More reruns: NBC has the June 22 audition episode of “America’s Got Talent,” from 8-10 p.m. ABC counters with “America’s Funniest Home Videos” at 8, “Shark Tank” at 9 and “The Good Doctor” (Claire’s absentee father shows up) at 10. Also, the first three Harry Potter films are on Syfy at 2, 5:30 and 9:30 p.m. And at 6 p.m. ET on Turner Classic Movies, you can catch “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid,” the clever cowboy film that first linked Paul Newman and Robert Redford.

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