The Thin Red Line

Rating:
Summary: Very Over-Rated
Review: The beginning of this movie started off slow, with seemingly no point, then the characters finally started to interact and the action started, then the movie dropped off from there. The Thin Red Line could have accomplished everything in less than an hour instead of going on for almost three hours. No true plot, no flow, very little character interaction, showed little of the true horrors and fears of war, and did not deserve an academy award nomination. Many other war films made did a better job of showing the horror of war.

Rating:
Summary: Malick's Passion Pays Off in Great Art
Review: It is fitting that the 20th Century should end with a great work of art which so vividly depicts men at war. Terrance Malick creats a vision of the mind-state for those who give the fullest measure of sacrifice. The technical accuracy of "Saving Pvt. Ryan" has its place, but "Thin Red Line" puts us squarely inside the minds of these men. We are so close in fact that we hear their thoughts and prayers as if they are our own. This is brilliant filmmaking.

Rating:
Summary: A breathe taking depicktion of war.
Review: The Thin Red Line combines great directing with great acting and cinematogrophy.

Rating:
Summary: Couldn't wait for the movie to end.
Review: The story was too confusing. Many times I was uncertain which character was narrading. I kept waiting for a real storyline to develop. This never happened. I found the movie long and not very good at all.

Rating:
Summary: Technical achievement with no point!
Review: If you loved "Saving Private Ryan" with it's solid non-revolving cast of characters you'll probablly hate "The Thin Red Line". Cameos of the big stars abound which adds little to the plot and more importantly detracts from heavily leaving the viewer (myself included) trying to figure just what they were doing in the movie to begin with and what was the point.
The "soldiers introspection" into his before life vs. his present battle for self-preservation at all costs and the "horrors of war" theme are haphazzardly thrust into the movie at various points and are hard to follow most of the time.
If you want to see Sean Penn and Geroge Clooney to name a few and or just need to see a "different" kind of WW-2 movie ... then you might give it a try ... but you've been warned!

Rating:
Summary: Surreal and hypnotic - a masterpiece of expressionist cinema
Review: When Terrence Mallick's film, "The Thin Red Line", opened in theatres, I was not surprised by the reactions of the majority. What do you expect from an audience that has been bomarbarded and brainwashed by films with ridiculous plots, excessive effects, moronic characters, and predictable narratives. Asking someone from an audience such as this to view "The Thin Red Line" is like asking them to view a painting. Too much work!!!! Mallick's film works on a different level. Like a painting, it is rich with texture, thought, and a variety of meaning. One has to view this film with an open mind and be willing to have to do a little work.The battle scenes are filled with beauty and horror, and the psycology of the soldiers is explored much more than most war films. Those who enjoyed the poetry of this film would as well enjoy Elem Kilmov's equally brutal and haunting war film "Come and See" and Wolfgang Peterson's "Das Boot".

Rating:
Summary: One star is too many
Review: I hated this movie, used the fast forward to get to some of the action scenes. If our soldiers were like these wusses in WWII the Japs would still be on Guadalcanal.

Rating:
Summary: Look at the opening shot
Review: The first shot of "Saving Private Ryan" is an american flag waving in the wind with cheap sentimental music playing. The opening shot of "The Thin Red Line" is a crocodile submerging beneath a pond in a jungle. From that shot I knew that this would be one of the best films ever. Now if only the video would come down in price...

Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best film I've seen
Review: If there was ever a war film to truly show us the horrors of war, this is it. "Saving Private Ryan" doesn't even come close to matching an experience like this. "The Thin Red Line" asks questions which need to be answered, and fortunately leaves us to think about them. There is no easy resoluton. There is no "earn this". This film goes far beyond giving idiots in the audience a chance to yell "all right" at each person who gets blown to bits. That's why it didn't do to well; it deserves an audience with an attention span and intelligence to attempt to answer its questions for themselves rather than having it thrust upon them. Unfortunately there aren't too many such movie-goers in North America today, because their brains have been fried by Spielberg and his cronies who provide us with their pop messages.

Rating:
Summary: The Thin Red Line was a good depiction of war.
Review: This was a quality film. I enjoyed it from start to finish. However, The Thin Red Line was a little to artsy for my taste. I didn't really like all the flashbacks that the soldiers had of their life before the war. One example of this would be one soldiers wife swinging in slow motion on a swing. They kept showing this seen over and over. It was hard to tell who was having the flashback too, because a lot of the soldiers looked alike. This is the reason that I liked Saving Private Ryan better. It is kind of ironic that the plots of 1998's two war movies, Saving Private Ryan and The Thin Red Line were opposite. In Saving Private Ryan, a bunch of men were dying to save one, and in The Thin Red Line one man died to save the a bunch of men. I would recommend this movie for everyone that is old enough to see it.