20th Century Fox, Rated R
Directed by Terrence Malick
Written by Terrence Malick based on the book by James Joyce
I had high hopes for The Thin Red Line when I walked into the theatres. Perhaps I was fooled by the critical raves in publications such as USA Today or perhaps I believed that it was possible that two great war movies could be made in such a short span of time. But The Thin Red Line is no Saving Private Ryan (and Ryan is no All Quiet on the Western Front, but nonetheless...). This first film in 20 years from Terrence Malick is about the battle for Guadalcanal and over almost three hours, it focuses on various soldiers involved in the battle, played by the likes of Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Ben Chaplin and John Cusack. Chaplin comes across the best here and may be the closest to a main character. But the problem is the movie is too first-person-omniscient for its own good. It has a terrible lack of focus and far too many elements are rather confusing. We hear the soldier's thoughts on the war they are fighting, but they aren't thoughts that would plausibly be made at that moment. If they aren't the soldiers' thoughts, then perhaps they're the narrator speaking through the soldiers. Frankly, this addition was rather needless, and the film would've been a lot better without hearing the soldiers (or whoever it is) asking endless questions about why they are fighting, the meaning of life, and so on. There is a lot that works in the movie. The many images of animals have endless symbolic meaning (but the idea that World War II shouldn't have been fought because it went against nature is preposterous; I wonder if Malick really believes Hitler overtaking the world would've been a better outcome). The film's cinematography is the big highlight. Every shot is fantastically done and actually the movie would still be *** 1/2-worthy if it had only lasted two hours. Unfortunately, the climax seems to take forever to reach and the final battle sequence seems somewhat superflous. This movie is well done in many respects, but it's shortcomings are also numerous. ***
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