THE THIN RED LINE - ARTY FARTY CON JOB
You just want to join the in-crowd and critics who immediately acclaim The Thin Red Line as a masterful work of cinema. Perhaps. Sure, there is some beautiful imagery, some wonderful cinematography and some intenseful battle scenes - but the meaning of the film, in so much as it is vague, hampers it as a work of art. Terrence Malick seems to be trying to say something - what that is is not clear. That he tries to say something and doesn't come to an answer - or at least a comprehensible one is a disappointment that Malick must feel himself - for I'm sure he had an intention in this film and didn't quite arrive at it. A movie that aims to explain the meaning of life - the duality of man - the affect of man on nature among other things, is obviously an ambitious movie. Malick hardly ever addresses them properly, instead preferring dreamy voice overs that represent the thoughts of these men in battle. However, he does address the interaction of nature and man, and the almost relifious significance of nature - in the amazing footage he has done - but I mean, you can get footage like this from a Queensland Tourism Commercial (there's an olympic ad right now that has these canoers in Canada with great visuals). Admittedly, when the sun shines through the canopies of trees symbolising a cathedral (war on holy ground?), it is a great visual - but then again, it's a feature film - it has to have something more. The editing is not a highlight of this film - though amazingly it works best in thee intense battle scenes, which genuinely do invoke anxiety in the audience. But it seems critics allow Malick to get away with the highest of transgressions that you wouldn't allow any film maker to get away with. When Nick Nolte proclaims to John Cusack: "you are like my son", where o where is the relationship demonstrated - it is without any context? Much of thhe film is without context - but this may have turned out to be a rather well timed narrative device - that even in conflict we don't really have a context to what's going on.
The Thin Red Line must not be thought of as a war movie - yes, it is anti-war; yes, it is vietnamesque; but it aims higher - it aims to be a reverie on the nature of man himself - and insofar as it is this type of film, it gets some good marks - but really, Malick has created an elaborate con-job. I'm sure he intended to say something, but was warbled in his execution - If the book is this unclear, then I stand to be corrected; but I think Malick has unintentionally muddled up the movie and the arty farty types who don't like to admit: "I just don't get this crap" will try to extract multiple meanings from it. Spend your time on Saving Private Ryan. It is both immediately comprehensible, yet also a much deeper film because of its superior imagery. SPR is even more brilliant in my opinion after watching this - anyone who says otherwise has fallen into the Malick Hoax.
PS. The score for this movie was outstanding - but SPR didn't need a score for its battles, which were more poetic than anything Malick thought up in three hours of this tediously long film.
PPS. I thought I needed to see this film again to re-consider after reading the critics on this movie. No, I will not watch it again because after thinking about it, I'm sure my mind won't be changed.
65/100