Rating: 
Summary: Woefully underrated
Review: It is good to see so many people appreciating this film for what it truly is, a brilliant meditation on the true experience of war, the confusion, the endlessness, the pointlessness. For those who don't think it's a war film, than their idea of one must be anything with an endless on-slaught of mindless death, with no intelligence whatsoever. And, to call this film "juvenile" defies all logic entirely. It may be one of the most mature films made in a decade or so. In any case, this almost Trancendental, Buddhist-like view of war is truly special, and only meant for those bright enough to catch its meaning.
Rating: 
Summary: Not worth a thin silver dime
Review: Nowhere, but in Hollywood, can so much be said in such an obtuse way. Director Malick manages to produce a war movie replete with inane absurdities superficially veiled in an attempt to appear "deep". This creation reflects the twisted liberal mind's confusion over the meaning of war and life. In the meantime, it manages to bore everybody watching it to death. Like an earlier reviewer here, I too observed some very bored movie goers during this movie. What a waste of time. To all reading this review, don't bother to see this movie. It is a joke.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST FILM OF THE NINETIES
Review: I HAVE NEVER IN MY LIFE BEEN SO MOVED AND PERSONALLY AFFECTED BY ANYTHING MORE THAN THE THIN RED LINE. THIS FILM HAS CHANGED ME AS A HUMAN BEING AND SHOULD BE EMBRACED BY ALL. IT ISN'T ABOUT PATRIOTISM OR WHO THE "BAD GUY" IS. IT IS ABOUT MANKIND. PLAIN AND SIMPLE.
Rating:
Summary: The Years Best Film
Review: In my humble oppinion this film is the best of the bunch this year. I also loved private ryan, but this is a more elequent, complex movie that is not for all tastes. In my oppinion, it is a work of genius. I was enthrawled with it all the way through. And like L.A. Confidential from last year, it is a shame that the thin red line didn't get the respect that it deserved. A terrific achievment!!!
Rating:
Summary: A juxtaposition of war & man
Review: "The Thin Red Line" is simply the best film of 1998. Terrence Malick struck back with his third film that brilliantly juxtaposes the beauty and "eden"-ness of the Solomon islands with the war and carnage that took place at Guaddalcanal. Marvelous performances by Sean Penn, Nick Nolte & Jim Caviezel.
Rating:
Summary: it is magnificent, gorgeous, the american Akira Kurosawa...
Review: This is one of the most beutifull and profound films I have ever seen, great film, although if you are looking for a typical kind of war action movie then do not rent this master piece, this is a ginious work but I think not ment for every body...
Rating:
Summary: Poor Private Ryan
Review: Why couldn't Private Ryan be this good? If Spielberg was not so preoccupied with making war look and sound real, he may have come close to the complexity of Terrence Mallick's work. Besides mindless Neandertals who have to have every part of a film explained to them, most people will find that Mallick's film is thought provoking and a much more honest approach to movie-making then is Private Ryan. It's good to see that not all of Holywood has given in to the hype of big budget special effects and forgotten that stories are important to a film. An absolutely marvelous movie with amazing cinematography.
Rating:
Summary: The best war movie
Review: Shame on "Saving Private Ryan" for never reaching this level of realism, depth, and historical accuracy. An absolute gem of a movie, which will not appeal to most audiences. This is not a gung-ho war picture, with flags blowing in the background. This is an unbiased look at warfare. Not only the struggle of man against man, but man against nature and his very own soul. A superb film.
Rating:
Summary: Everything "Private Ryan" Wishes It Was
Review: Terence Malick's "The Thin Red Line" is the war movie that Spielberg probably wishes he could make. No, it's not jingoistic. No, there's no heroes. Instead, it is quite simply one of the most beautiful, breath-taking, and horrific movie experiences I've ever had. Maybe it's confusing. Maybe it's moralistic. No matter, it is the type of movie only a master would grasp to attain. It's a crime that this movie didn't receive an Oscar, and a tragedy that more directors don't follow Malick's visionary lead.
Rating: 
Summary: These other reviewers are pretty stupid
Review: Although it might be argued that Malick was in over his head--doubtful, when you consider that he spends his Sundays translating Heidegger--the film is still head and shoulders above the mass of war movies made today. If anything, this film does not suffer from lack of continuity, but too much of it. Given the scrutiny under which this movie was released, I think Malick might have felt obliged to include more story than was necessary or even healthy to the ambience. The Thin Red Line is about war in the same way that Thomas Hardy's war poems are about war--they do not give any answer as pat as "War is Hell." Instead, they give you the Verfremdungseffekt, the distance to realize that war is silly. The Thin Red Line succeeds gracefully where Malick always does, in the images. But his reliance on endless voice-overs, mannered here instead of the artless irony of his earlier movies, seems heavy-handed. "How do we get to those blue hills, to those other shores" is not the most eloquent poetry I've ever heard, and falls flat next to any image taken at random from the movie. Still, a luxurious and engrossing movie.
|
