Rating: 
Summary: " The closer you are to Caesar, the greater the fear!"
Review: You either love THE THIN RED LINE or hate it! This is one of the most realistic pictures you will ever see! 7 Academy award nominations and won NOTHING? "Just dirt! We are all just dirt!"...
Rating:
Summary: One of the most beautiful films ever made
Review: This is one of the most beautiful, deeply moving, philosophical films ever made. Where the music, the visual imagery, and the dialogue all work in perfect unison. (The music is simply hypnotic and I highly recommend the CD. Not since Kundun and Philip Glass' score has the music been so important to the the totality of the film.) Upon repeated viewing I realized that every little piece of dialogue and it's accompanying visual is meant to convey to the viewer some philosophical aspect, or to pose a question. Mallick is very spare in dialogue for that reason. When words are spoken they don't just fill in screen time. Little known fact; Mallick translated Heidegger's "Essence of Reason" into English. This is a film made by a philosopher.Anyone desiring to specifically see a traditional war movie, go see Saving Private Ryan, which is also a good film, but completely different from this one. That one illustrated the horror of a specific battle, and sought to honor the heroism of men in what it considered an evil necessity. It was also story oriented. TTRL questions the whole concept of what is evil itself, of war and it's necessity or not, of God, of man's place in nature, of man's duty to his fellow man. I tell friends not to expect to see a war movie, but rather a film about the metaphysics of God, about good vs evil, and about man's inner nature vs nature, about transcendence. And it doesn't necessarily give answers. By pointing things out that people rarely question or even acknowledge, it leaves the answers for the viewer to find. Many people come away dissatisfied because they expect to see a traditional film with a linear plot. You have to watch TTRL with a different expectation. It's not an "unfinished" film by any means. It does convey exactly what it's supposed to. It creates a mood, it poses questions, it quite pointedly points out absurdities. You simply can't watch it expecting for an "end", but rather watch it and take in each and every pearl it presents in each moment. At the end, Clooney gives a speech about "it all right if you get drunk, just do your duty, I'm your father and you have to stay in line or there will be trouble to pay" (paraphrasing). Penn at the same time thinks to himself, "everything we are told is a lie, we are trapped in a moving box, they want us dead or in their lie....All a man can do is find what is his and make an island". A condemnation of the traditional God? Yet when Penn passes by the cemetery and looks at the military crosses, he says "If I don't meet you again in this life, let me feel the lack, one look from your eyes and my life is yours". To whom does he direct this? To the dead, to Caviezal (Witt) specifically, who is portrayed as a Christ-like figure? Caviezal tells Penn earlier that he "has seen another world" and that he still "sees the spark" inside of Penn, when Penn questions whether he "still believes in the beautiful light". There's so much more. Hint: not only dialogue and visual and music convey meaning. But also the actor's faces. Carefully watch them. For ex, after they take the hill Nolte is explaining his motivations to Cusack. But the more he explains, the more he reveals the horrible truth about himself and the war. Cusacks face slowly registers this fact, you can see the full knowledge register in his face and in his tone of voice, even though he doesn't directly challenge Nolte but continues to play "good soldier". Great acting all around, especially Nolte.
Rating:
Summary: A true marvel of a film
Review: I first saw TRL in the cinema in 99 and I came out half bored and very unsure about what I'd just seen, with my mates branding it a complete waste of time and money. Despite this i was still thinking about it 2 weeks after. 6 months later it still remained in my mind: images, sounds, faces, voices.
Curiously, I got it out on video and watched it again and slowly began to appreciate it more and more, like i was slowly opening my eyes, the film had captured something truly unspoken, something deep and resonant, a certain quality you might sense in certain moments from your favourite films or in those peaceful or happy moments of your life. I've now watched it close to 25 times (and still haven't met anyone who actually likes it) and i've never said this about any film before but it gets better every single time i watch it, something new in it always lies waiting to be discovered or interpreted differently, or with new experience related to more intimately, giving it a whole new feeling. It uses such a different narrative style to anything i've seen,
the way it flows, the way is draws its characters and use of voiceovers is so unconventional it's no wonder that so many viewers are taken aback by it the first time they see it, we're so attached to the conventional narrative structure and rules its hard for us to appreciate or understand something so completely different in its telling, which is why i think it gets criticised as pretencious, boring...: it's a knee jerk reaction to something different, that we don't understand - hell, i had the same reaction. For me the film is like a dream, like a river that flows, making the film almost organic. There's such life and power, deep feelings and emotions in this film that they don't wash away like your usual drama. Its use of symbols - both intelligent and profoud, the actors, especially jim caveizal, ben chaplin and sean penn, truly amazing, just the look on their faces, those moments of silence between characters speaks volumes. Unlike SPR this film doesn't stereotype the enemy but lets us see their tragedy as well in this war, making them real ppl, a true anti war film. I watch SPR again, despite thinking it great when I first saw it, it now feels so boring to me, so crassly American, so untrue. Now, the first 20 minutes doesn't carry the same impact anymore whereas trl's 40 minutes still resonates powerfully, like explosions of consciousness. Sometimes i wish all films were like trl, and whenever I see a film that makes me depressed about the status of films today I quickly remember the Thin Red Line. So please, give this film a chance, see it a second time or a third time, let it take you with it, let it sweep you up, throw away your expectations, forget everything you've seen, the journey will be one you'll remember.
Rating: 
Summary: Why can't I give it 0 stars?
Review: There really isn't much to say about this movie. I'd just rather die a slow painful death than see this movie again. A week ago I went to COSTCO and there is a five dvd war set at a very good price but I refuse to buy it simply because this movie is part of the set. I'd rather pay more for the other movies individually than get this one for free. Thats just how bad this movie is. Finally, I'd just like to say that they should have (...) the lady who spends the whole movie on a swing. That would have earned this movie at least three more stars. In conclusion, go to the dentist and have a root canal because you'll enjoy that more than this movie.
Rating:
Summary: A war film that is about more than just war.
Review: When The Thin Red Line was released, most people were expecting another Saving Private Ryan. They wanted a film that compelled you through intense visual imagery and used that imagery to convey a sense of the horrors of war. However, The Thin Red Line, at its heart, does not attempt to tell the horrors of war that most people imagined. Rather, it gives a deep look into many of the important things in life through the medium of war. Love, and love lost. The futility of our wars. How fighting for the sake of fighting can destroy you and many other interesting insights appear throughout this film. This is a war film that makes you think in order to understand it. The only other was films I can think of that make one think this much in order to fully comprehend the film and its meanings are The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now. Yet even these films were exclusively about the emotional impact that war has on its participants. The Thin Red Line gives you a much more broad based view of the effects of war and may very well be the finest war film ever made, if only it were truly about war.
Rating: 
Summary: War and Peace
Review: Quite an interesting movie with many memorable moments but a lot of self indulging periods. This pro-religious attitude it had right from the beginning is very unpleasant to every one of us with brains still working. However, compared to Saving Private Ryan this movie is truly a masterpiece. Heroes are almost real humans, multi dimensional, dominated by fear, which was a little exaggerated but never toward unrealism. To all who image war as the cradle of heroes I had something interesting my grandfather once said of his WW2 experience: Most soldiers stood on the ground and refused to fire a single round if not themselves were in immediate life peril. This was in fact acknowledged by American army and policies of training have dramatically changed ever since. Today war is not about compulsory enrollment, but in that time people were literally taken out of their homes "to fight a war for their country", in fact on behalf of some mostly irresponsible and careerist commanders. Nolte extraordinarily portrays such a commander who would have no problem spending lives of his troopers for the sake of personal gratifying. The scene with that anonymous soldier getting a letter from his wife who wished a divorce was heartbreaking. In every trooper's soul a tragedy was under way and there was no way to act against it since war demanded pure action and action demands abolition of thought and personality. Quite unfortunate, the former commander departs in glory only to be replaced with an even more absurd one, which implies that tragedy continued. I also remember the breathtaking scene of hill's assault, when Nolte required from a mile distance more to participate while soldiers looking around in perhaps the last moments of their lives. How many people died just because the tactics have been ill-conceived? How many people died in very conquerable Vietnam just because tactics have been ill-conceived? War is not about heroism. As life itself, it's a never-ending compromise for no matter any commander or soldier, attacker or defender. In fact, the most beautiful scene of all has those natives looking with such unearthly detachment toward the rains of bullets which took over their country. Penn's character said: "Look all around you, nature has no forgiveness!". It's indifferent to our personal struggles and goes on no matter what. We like to think it exists because we exist, but it's very wrong and quite inverse. Despite its many faults, Thin Red Line is perhaps the best war movie ever made.
Rating:
Summary: Line of Death
Review: I encourage people to avoid this movie by any means possible, no matter what format it is presented in. After a 20 year hiatus, director Terrence Malik returns to show us why he hasn't made a movie in that time. I was truly surprised that Malik and crew did not reduce the lush, jungle splendor of Guadalcanal to an arid desert rock, there is so much scenery chewing here from Nick Nolte playing the stereotypical officer seeking glory and a general's star at any cost to the oh-so-gentle John Cusack who only cares for the welfare of his men no matter what the cost to the mission. This film is full of every anti-war, anti-g.i. stereotype ever seen. Come to think of it, it's full of every war movie gimmick ever done. There isn't an original idea in this whole 2 hour 50 minute snooze-fest! All the grunts wander around in a daze asking "Why am I here?", "What's my purpose in life?", "Can't we all just get along???" OK, not the last one, but you get where I'm going with this... Maybe I made the mistake of going to see this with a 'Canal Navy vet. When we were all walking out after this marathon he asked "What the hell was that?" The film had absolutely no relevance to him. They were all young and on the greatest experience of their young lives! Many had never been more than 100 miles from their birthplaces and now here they were on an exotic jungle island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. To top it all off they were on a "mission from God", avenging Pearl Harbor. They were part of one of the greatest military machines ever seen, they were giants walking the earth. There was no confusion, there was no milling about wondering what on earth they were doing so far from home. They were fighting for their country and to protect their way of life. This was at a time in our history that the fate of the US actually DID hang in the balance! This movie portrayed soldiers as weak and full of fear and was totally wrong...I guess it struck such a chord with Hollywood reviewers because it essentially reflected their own lifestyles and attitudes. The best thing about this movie is that it pretty much guaranteed it'll be another twenty years before Malik inflicts another horrid movie on us.
Rating:
Summary: WORST MOVIE EVER
Review: I don't care anything about who this director is or was this movie was horrible. It had no plot, it made NO SENSE, I dont care what he was trying to say this movie was horrible and I should sue someone to get the 2hr. and 50min. of my life back.
Rating: 
Summary: A great film trying to get out
Review: There is a great film buried in this movie. I waited impatiently for the DVD release, hoping to be able to skip over the disjointed and dull dream/memory sequences that break up the narrative. Unfortunately, the chapters aren't set up to easily allow that.
Another reviewer asked for a longer director's cut. Make mine shorter, keep it a war movie - with man shown juxtaposed with nature, life next to death, the eternal struggle going on, with all the brutality and futility intact, the dragging and frantic pacing mixed together through the combat scenes - but leave the wives and swing sets back home.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Accomplishment
Review: Regardless of the poor box-office performance, this film will remain as a classic work of art, and something that any artist can look up to and be inspired by.
The Thin Red Line by Terrence Malick, supported by its beautiful cinematography and music, explores, through the eye of soldiers during the World War II, the contrasts between fear/joy, hate/love, confusion/understanding, pain/comfort loneliness/togetherness, knowledge/ignorance, doubt/faith longing/acceptance, and death/life, among others.
In a battle scene, the characters are confronted with the invisible enermy (the Japanese troop on a hill) and the invisible authority (which gives orders from afar), both controling their fate. At the same time, the beauty of the nature greets them in the most fearful moments in the battle, as if to say 'life continues without you.'
Sean Penn at the beginning tells Jim Caviezel that a man's life is nothing in the scheme of the war, only to realize after the battles that a glory in the war is nothing in the bigger scheme of life.
All the capable actors succeed in showing us through their brief appearances 'where they are in their lives at the moment.'
Elias Kotes does a great work as Captain Staros, a former lawyer who is not willing to sacrifice any of his men. Nick Nolte, as Lt.Col. Tall, is forceful representing a thirst for his own glory in war. Jim Caviezel, Private Witt, gives the opposition to Mr. Nolte's manipulativeness. His graceful presence resonates with the beauty of the film. A great casting.
This film celebrates life without resorting to a more common feeling of joy in the glory of war. A risky choice by Mr. Malick.
But the film grabs the audience's attention with its uncompromising truthfulness. It is as if Mr. Malick is obsesed with depicting the closer relationship between a soldier's emotions and actions in extraordinary circumstances.
Every scene, thus, has it own complexity, which is something rarely seen in war movies.
One question is constantly asked in the minds of the characters in the film, which is "What would defeat us? Is it the war, or our fear of being true to ourselves?"
The film answers the question by itself.
So, please watch this again, even if you didn't 'get it' the first time. Mr. Malick is a great artist who knows what he is doing.
This IS a very differnt film, and is not shy about it. Also, the film itself is not phylosophical at all. It is a great experience that would renew your senses for humanity and its beauty.
The Thin Red Line is not really an entertainment, but a strong visual statement against wars and the hatred and the fear they bring in us.
The only movie that I can make a comparison to is 'Ran' by Akira Kurosawa (visually stunning and more dramatic, based on King Lear by Shakepeare), also recommended.
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