Rating: 
Summary: The Greatest HUMAN War Story Ever Put On Film
Review: Most people in the US never liked Terrence Malick's "Thin Red Line," but maybe that's because they didn't see the true essence of what Malick was trying to portray. Using James Jones' 1962 novel as a basis for the film, Malick created a masterpiece that shows not the brutal carnage of war like Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan," but the human soldiers and their thoughts. Malick's narrative voice-overs, which made his previous films ("Badlands" and "Days of Heaven") popular, are excellent and show what the GIs are feeling as they fight a brutal enemy. Even though most of the actors in TRL have not yet achieved nationwide-popularity, they surely deserve it. I read Jones' novel, and all the actors perfectly fit their respective characters, both visually and through their acting. Sean Penn (Sgt. Welsh) is wonderful as the perennial leader, and so is Nick Nolte (Col. Tall). Jim Caviezel (Pvt. Witt) and Ben Chaplin (Pfc. Bell) are definately my favorites in the film, since they play their characters flawlessly. The Thin Red Line's most under-rated actor is surely Dash Mihok, who played Pfc. Doll. He previously appeared in "Romeo and Juliet," in which he played Benvolio. His character's insane scene on the hill and his reactions to situations are extremely believable. Elias Koteas makes the perfect Capt. Staros, as he shows a father-like figure who cares for his mean. Woody Harrelson made a memorable appearance as Sgt. Keck, but unfortunatly Keck died fairly early in the film. Adrien Brody makes a nice big-production debut as Cpl. Fife, even though he was cut down from being a main character. Besides these men, John C Reilly (Sgt. Storm), from "Days of Thunder" and "Boogie Nights," appeared briefly on camera, even though Storm is a bigger character in the book. Lastly, George Clooney made a strong, but short on-screen presence as Capt. Bosche. All-in-all, Terrence Malick's Thin Red Line is a wonderful story of the invasion of Guadalcanal, told through the eyes of the men that fought there. A definate "must-see," as well as an "instant war-film classic."
Rating:
Summary: A religious experience . . .
Review: In my 25 years of dehumanizing service in the military, I've never seen anything that captures the humanity of all soldiers as well as this work of art. It is a masterpiece of ethics. It is a masterpiece of film as art.
Rating:
Summary: A great Movie
Review: This Movie is a great Movie How could any one give this one star. The acting is great the action scenes are great everything about this movie is great so I highly reccomend this movie to any one.
Rating: 
Summary: GO SEE ARMIGEDON OR GODZILA INSTEAD!
Review: This movie is so bad the acting mad me want too laugh. If you want too see a good movie then rent Armigedon Godzila or Spawn. Martin Shen and Jon Legizmo where so good in SPawn, but for some reason evryone thinks this is good. Im no dummy, I know a good movie when I see it and this isnt it. Friday with Ice Cube and Cris Tucker was good, and so was Rush Hour. The directr of this movie has no talent, and Shawn Penn is a bad acter. Nuff sed
Rating:
Summary: A Necessity
Review: Anyone who has seen and loved this film needs to read Being and Time by Heidegger if they want to fully understand the greatness of this film and to understand where Malick is coming from and what this film is trying to do.
Rating:
Summary: the best movie ever made?
Review: The Thin red Line is the best evidence I have ever seen that foks looking fro meaning in ANYTHing can find meaning anywhere. The grand nature of this movie is that it is really a collage of random thoughts, and about 10 minutes of war scenes made to ride on the tail of Saving Private Ryan to attract an audience.This movie will never stand by itself, and absent the crowd that loved Saving Private Ryan and were duped into thinking this would be like it, it would have recieved snooring reviews on the opening weekend.
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Summary: One of the greatest war movie ever made in the U.S.
Review: First, sorry for my lack of fluency in this review. My English is not good enough yet. I love this film. I love it's breath-taking south pacific battle scenes, characters, plot and everything, none the less for it's faults. I was surprized to find some reviews saying that TRL lacks reality (than SPR). SPR has the most shocking battle scene of W.W.2. ever made in history. I agree. But, suppose that you're a grunt during the great war. I bet you'll meet characters, an officer just like Nick Nolte, sergents just like Penn and Heraldson, privates like ones shown in this film. I bet you will never have a chance to fight along with captain like Hanks or with guys shown in SPR, nor have a chance to fight a heroic battle shown in SPR. Well,I agree that this film seems to be released incomplete, needs to be modified in some aspects(for concentration), and, evidently, some famous actors didn't do their best(Or Marlick failed to extract best results from them). But after all, TRL is one of my favorate(I can also recommend you another compelling film - "Galipoli" starring Mel Gibson, without hesitation) and I think it's worth buying and deserves 5 stars even in most conservative and skeptic evaluation.
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. It suprises me that some people would totaly rip on this movie. One thing you must understand before you see this is that this movie shows the human side to war. People die and people kill, this takes a toll on your soul, if you dont understand this then you fit into the statistics of why America is falling behind school. I defend this country and I understand the thoughts that go on. Saving Private Ryan was great but it didnt touch the human factor of war.
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Summary: Made me wish I had never seen Private Ryan
Review: I don't know what some of the reviewers listed here missed but "The Thin Red Line" made me ashamed that anyone would consider "Ryan" a good movie. TRL had characters that where more then the cardboard cutouts of "sniper" "father figure" and "guy from the Bronx" that was the only thing that held "SPR" after that climactic opening scene. It might have looked at Thin Red line's and see that some people want to think about what is going on the screen. I loved the montages and the cinematography blew me away. Funny how it took SPR a half an hour special effects bonanza to impress me, but a man's shadow in falling on a woman on a swing blew me away in TRL.
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Summary: Poetry before Storytelling, Art before Commerce.
Review: That Terrence Malick is incapable of coherent characterisation, or storytelling, has been the critical consensus that has prevailed for over 20 years: "Malick puts visuals ahead of storytelling, poetry ahead of coherent characterisation, philosophical rumination ahead of thematic development". Those who seek to appraise Malick's work, aptly point out that Malick lacks the great artist's arrangement of complex effects, which is certainly true. We look to Kubrick for exquisite grouping of devices; Malick's figure in the carpet is a much simpler one. What it consists of - the very thing that critics fail to detect - is a structure of striking contrasts. The impression that most people take home from The Thin Red Line is a "succession of sharply-outlined pictures". His film, nonetheless is not simply a succession of pictures. It is a sustained structural whole. Every Malick critic concurs in this mistaken notion that The Thin Red Line is nothing more than "a series of episodic scenes" but not one critic has yet undertaken a analysis of Malick's work to see how the sequences of tableau are constructed. One of the many themes of The Thin Red Line is that man's salvation lies in change, in spiritual growth. It is only by immersion in the flux of experience that man becomes disciplined and develops in character, conscience or soul. The film is about a battle, but it is a symbolic battle. A battle that represents life at its most intense flux, and it, therefore, exploits the greatest possibilities for change. To say that The Thin Red Line is a study in fear is as shallow an interpretation as to say that it is a narrative of the battle of Guadalcanal. It is not just "the overriding dramatic impulse to kill the other guy". It is not about the combat of armies, it is about the self-combat of the soldiers who fear and stubbornly resist change and spiritual growth. But through immersion in violence, make essential discoveries about themselves, and nature. Theme and style in The Thin Red Line are organically conceived, the theme of change, is just one of many, conjoined with the fluid style by which it is evoked. Fluidity and change characterise the whole film. Malick's style, calculated to create confused impressions of change and motion, is deliberately disconnected and disordered. He interjects disjointed details, one non sequitur melting into another. Scenes and objects are felt blurred; everything shifts in value. Yet everything has relationship to the total structure; everything is manipulated into contrapuntal cross-references of meaning. Malick puts film language to poetic uses, which, to define it, is to use elements of film language reflexively and to use visuals symbolically. It is the works which employ this use of film language that constitute what is permanent of Malick. The Thin Red Line juxtaposes sequences of tremendous, visceral impact, and violence, with quiet scenes of contemplation. The violence, when it does come, is a web of mental commotion, confusion, and change externalised in the mighty altercation of men and guns and nature itself. In the onslaught, explosions throw men into the air and each other. They wither under the heavy gun fire, blood splatters on the camera lens (jarring us from the fictional world) , the explosions become strange blooming red blossoms of fire and smoke. From a few feet above, the camera rushes, rakes, soars over the floor of green. This, and similar motifs, become central to the film. The use of colour in The Thin Red Line is rather bright compared to the drab colours that surround most cinema battlefields. The environment is beautifully saturated with bright colour that emphasizes the natural surroundings, which are a big focus of Malick's direction. The central pillars of the film are its cinematography and soundtrack. Each scene has its own inner beauty, whether due to the light, the awesome scenery or something else, which is breathtaking, like the image of the cloud suspended like an island at dusk, or the dogs feasting on human remains. These are just two fragments from the torrent of overwhelming images. The terrific atmosphere relies on more than just pictures and abstract images though - there are times of no dialogue, just the flow of streams and the whisper of the breezes through the grassy hills. Malick's language, is the language of symbol and paradox. For example, the image of the infant bird that is floundering, and struggling on the ground, is unsettling as a symbol for the spectator. It is symbolic, and creates a paradox for us. The image, allows us to put the situation of the dying soldiers into sharp-relief as they struggle to deal with their situation, and become corrupted by the violence. Later in the film, the voice-over narration invites us to recall this image, and add to its possible meaning, or to the paradox it creates. There are many binary elements in The Thin Red Line, that are built into Malick's nonnarrative and narrative to show the paradox within nature, and human nature. The crocodile entering green algae covered water, dogs eating human carrion, have roundly been damned as non-functional figures, but what seems artificial and irrelevant to Malick's critics is only because they have been lifted out of context. Like any other images, they have to be related to the structure of meaning which they function. What any of these images mean fundamentally is open to debate. Malick's poetry has been seen as banal by some critics, but lifts the film to the near great. Furthermore it suggests another telltale significance, one that is applicable to Malick himself. What is readily recognisable in the paradox above, is that irony of opposites which constitutes the personality of the man who made it. It is the subjective correlative of his own plight. It symbolises his personal outlook on life - a life that is filled with ironic contradictions. The enigma of the man is symbolised in his enigmatic style.
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