The Thin Red Line

Rating:
Summary: Great Story, Great Photography, Stupid Director
Review: They could have cut out an hour from this film without missing a thing. The first and last parts were wisps of a bad director's imagination. The battle scenes were realistic, but the prelude on the balmy island was senseless and the constant flashbacks were irritating. After all, it was a film about war! Save the sermonizing for the next romantic comedy.

Rating:
Summary: Different and Disturbing
Review: I saw this movie on opening day and I can agree with some of the critics in these reviews that the movie seemed to be to long sometimes. I have to disagree with them,however, on the quality of the film. TRL and SPR were both about the changes that war can cause in the people involved, but SPR shows the changes of the men on the outside and TRL tries to show the changes that the men notice in themselves. Some of the voiceovers were not the greatest, but others gave a more chilling example of war trauma then anything I've ever seen or heard. TRL and SPR both left me disturbed after seeing them but in different ways. Ryan made me think of the blood and guts of war, while TRL made me think more of the mental casualties of the survivors. This mental cost is so much harder to put on the screen, especially in a way that will appeal to today's attention-span challenged society. I would have to say TRL is the better of the two because it is taking on much harder subject matter and the filmmaking craft itself creates a dreamlike atmosphere. Is it perfect ? No. But compared to what comes out of Hollywood these days, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

Rating:
Summary: Much, much, MUCH better than "Saving Private Ryan"...
Review: They said it would never happen. They said Mallick would never come out of his reclusive existence. That "Days of Heaven" had been his positively final output. Then he returned to the director's chair and directed an adaptation of the brilliant James Jones' novel, "The Thin Red Line". Result? One of the best war movies ever.

Let's face facts here: TRL *is* revolutionary, just as "The Truman Show" is revolutionary. Both of them hold fast to the premise that films don't need to be anaesthesic. That film is an art, and art demands involvment from the viewer's mind, heart and soul. "Saving Private Ryan" offered us War Can Seriously Endanger Your Health. TRL is more worried with the true aspects of war, with the deep psychological impact of war. Why does nature contend with itself? What is the source of evil? War is not simply blood and carnage. War is something each of us has to fight, for as long as there is violence, as long as there is "this need of nature to contend with itself" war will not be over, ever. That is one of the most profound statements of the film: that each of us fights his (hers, as well) own war.

Another triumph is with the fantastic *texture* of the film. Most war films (in fact, most films) seem to be concerned merely with the physical realities of war (or whatever), with the age-old message "war is hell". Not TRL, though. It is so wonderfully photographed it will have you wondering why did it fail to pick up the best Cinematography Award. The light on water, the crocodile diving into the river... poetry. There is no other word for this undescribable film. Visual poetry in action. It goes beyond your average "War as Hell" scenario. It asks the uncomfortable questions: where does war come from? Why do we relish in evil?

The characterisation is simply brilliant, the screenplay is astounding in its depth and the soundtrack is heart-breakingly beautiful (there is a certain Melanisian chant that will float around your head for days to come...). Most of all, is a film that demands thought, and in this age of Hollywood pap, *that* is revolutionary.

Summing up in one word: brilliant. The fact that it did not pick a single Academy Award only goes to show that the Academy voters can be recognised in the street by their bright red noses.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLEN

Rating:
Summary: Who lit this flame in us?
Review: While there is a trend of so many war movies that show the dark side of war with a violent grasp and after a viewer sees it, he wishes that it ends with someone's victory: In most of the cases the Americans end the war, save the world. That was the case in SPR. Whereas Mallick's Thin Red Line, besides showing such a human side of the war, leaves the intention that the war should end without any sides victory, because both sides have casualties. So the movie's main attempt is to make people believe that the concept of war should disappear. However, this very problematic situation is resolved in the beginning in the movie as claiming that war'll never end --even as a concept. The movie begins with the question "What's this war in the heart of nature, why does nature vie with itself, the land contained with sea..." So this points out that war is itself in nature and can never disappear as long as nature survives. TRL continues with such questions, mostly based on Eastern Philosophy and leaves the audience with very dramatic thoughtS: "This great evil, where does it come from? Who lit this flame in us? How did we lose the good that was given us?" Watching the movie won't answer your questions, but at least it'll make you think about them. 'This great evil; where does it come from?' It's one of the greatest movies ever and a masterpiece by Mallick. And Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and Jim Caviezel perform magnificiently in the movie --especially Caviezel as the frustrated wishful thinker Private.

Rating:
Summary: WOW!!!
Review: This movie is nothing less than astonishing....not only is it mentally stimulating, but visually brethtaking as well. Never has such minimal blood and guts been so effective in showing the horrific depths of war....my only advice is to see it with an open mind (not one brainwashed with generic movies like Saving Private Ryan) and see it when you have the patience to, not just to see a movie...it can be metally exhausting.

Rating:
Summary: Less fun than a kick in the groin!
Review: Run, don't walk away from this movie. Just click the mouse and surf along to ANY other title. Don't subject yourself to almost three hours of plotless, muddled garbage and surrealistic nonsense.

A fine cast (including cameos by Nick Nolte and John Travolta) is utterly wasted in this fiasco. Sean Penn gives a fine performance that is sadly lost in the haze as the director wanders off to follow some strange inner voice rather than giving the picture any sort of comprehensible plot, character development, or payoff. A multitude of non-sequiteur jump cuts and slow-mo flashbacks ensure that even what plot there is sinks into the mire without a trace.

I almost walked out of this turkey three times in the theater, and by the end all that was keeping me going was the hope that the hero would die horribly and give me at least some satisfaction. That's how utterly Malick (whose fingerprints are all over this project) fails to make the viewer care about his main character. Since we don't care about the characters, we don't care what happens to them, which is the antithesis of how a war movie is suppose to be made. At the end of "Glory," for example, characters we have grown to know and admire charge gallantly to their deaths and we are touched by their loss. No amount of gore can make us care about a cardboard cutout.

Want to see a movie about WWII on Guadalcanal? Try "Guadalcanal Diary", a fine movie based on a terrific book. Or just stare into space for three hours. Just STAY AWAY from the Thin Red Line.

Rating:
Summary: This movie was so bad I fell asleep twice.
Review: What a complete disapointment. If I hadn't fallen asleep I would have left long before it was over. Who in their right mind could have enjoyed this film, let alone nominate it for best picture? Awful film. Boring film. Pointless film. Stupid film. Bad film. A complete waste of time and money. I hope the producers and everyone else involved in this movie lost their shirt. I would have given it less than one star if you'd have let me.

Rating:
Summary: Second Best Film of 1998
Review: This films success was destroyed by its hefty competiter Saving Private Ryan. The Thin Red Line was not as good as Speilbergs D-Day summer blockbuster but it still flowed with true emotion and drama. Ben Chaplin gave a magnificent job as a private who longed to return home to his wife. Also, Jim Chazriel displayed such emotion and sympathy to his role, you felt as if you were there with him. The movie is not as bloody as Private Ryan but still has a few scenes of gore. The Thin Red Line left you with a feeling that not all of the glory was at D-Day/Europe, but in the south pacific crisis too.

Jon Sodini

Rating:
Summary: I watched it slack-jawed
Review: Different people have different tastes. I loved it. That is all