The
Thin Red Line
(1998)
Rated: R
Runtime: 2 Hours and 50 Minutes
Reviewer: Dale
Grade: CThere are scenes where this film hits the high notes that it is aiming for. When it actually channels a bit of the genius that it intends to show.
However, there are just not quite enough of them for me to recommend this film.
War movies are a strange little genre unto themselves. And they often hit the same points over and over again. Not that there is anything wrong with that. They are good points: the tragedy, brutality and ultimate pointlessness of war; the waste of human life; the loss of innocence and youth. These are all relevant themes and "The Thin Red Line" means to tackle them. It does so with varying degrees of success.
On one hand, we have a superb performance by Nick Nolte as a hardened general who will let nothing, absolutely nothing, stand in the way of his success. He has been given his orders.
He has his agenda and he means to follow it through, no matter what the cost.
Opposing him is Elias Koteas, known best to those of my generation as Casey Jones (the guy in the hockey mask) from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies. He is equally good as a man who argues for his troops. He disobeys Nolte's orders when he finds it necessary, seeing no reason to sacrifice his men for something pointless and in a fight that they cannot possibly win. The struggle between these two men says a great deal about the nature of war, and it is a very important statement. Whenever the film chooses to focus on these two men, it is fascinating.
There are other things of note in this film as well. The subplot in which a man stays true to his wife no matter what was of great interest to me. She is the thing that gets him through the war, the single thing that keeps him going. Then he gets a shattering piece of news that I will not reveal to you here. Needless to say, that is a powerful moment.
There are powerful moments here, just not enough of them for me to recommend the film.
For one thing, it is too unfocused. Characters appear and disappear without a point and without an explanation. The narrative rambles and without reason. The ending of the film is decidedly anticlimactic. Not only that, but the first forty-five minutes or so of this film are just not interesting. They are downright boring, in fact. I sat there waiting for the film to take off, to lead somewhere interesting. And it eventually did go somewhere interesting. It has some very good points to make at times. I just think that the first hour seriously undermines the remainder of the film. It is a lag that the best moments of the movie never quite recover from.
Another quibble I had with the movie was that there were far too many big stars in it, and for short amounts of time. We don't get to know them. They don't really serve the plot much of the time. Instead, they distract one from the rest of the movie. You follow along and just when the film is starting to absorb you, you think "Hey, there's John Travolta!" He shows up, says a few lines, distracts your mind from whatever else might be going on onscreen, and then he disappears just as suddenly and inexplicably as he came. He is not alone on this. Many other stars do the same. They show up just long enough to throw off your attention and then are gone before you can figure out what they were doing there.
The scenery is beautiful, and there are many mesmerizing shots involved in this film. But ultimately, this viewer was left wanting. I wanted to see more of what happened to the characters that I was made to care about. I wanted the movie to concentrate more on them and less on the major stars that seem to arrive simply for cameos. I wanted it to delve deeper, to toy more with both its issues and my emotions. But in the end, I was left wanting more than the film itself would provide.
For some, "The Thin Red Line" may be a fascinating and absorbing study of war. And for those who find it to be such, I am happy. More power to them. I only wish I had felt the same way.
For me, however, "The Thin Red Line" was a rather maddening experience.
Reviewer: Jones
Grade: A+
"The Thin Red Line" is one of those rarest of films. The type that I feel like I cannot do justice to with my scant reviews, but I feel the need to tell of the spectacle that this film is..... No matter how poorly I may do so.
It is a film that exists on a level with "2001: A Space Odyssey" in terms of the craft and perfection inherent in it's design and execution. It is the grandest of all war films. Bar none.
This is no small feat considering the competition, but it tells it's story with such mastery and ease of pace that I cannot help but feel like I have witnessed a film that deserves to be on the extremely short list of best films of all time.
"The Thin Red Line" is defined as a war film, but it is more the study of the effects of war upon the men who fight it, rather than the war itself. I won't get down to specifics, because I cannot go into that much detail within the limits of this review.
"The Thin Red Line" is the sort of film that any director, other than Terrence Malick, cannot even dream of putting to film. He haunts the viewer with the camera. You become a soldier amidst the chaos, as he deftly moves the camera through the grassy hillside. One scene in particular demonstrates the harshness of war, as the camera slowly sways from side to side and then plunges into the grass. You have just experienced death firsthand.
Malick thrusts you headlong into the battles. It begins with an eerie quiet and then the gates of Hell are opened before your very eyes. You see the life you once knew pass you by, as you are thrown into the belly of the beast.
I liked the fact that "The Thin Red Line" demonstrated the fact that wars can be fought on nice sunny days. Think about it. Practically every other war movie has the battles take place on dark and dreary battlefields. I always wondered if this was some sort of prerequisite for a major battle in a film. Thankfully this film lays waste to that train of thought.
The performances are all of the utmost quality. All are worthy of examination, but I feel the need to discuss the merits of Nick Nolte's often overlooked performance as Colonel Gordon Tall. Easily the best performance of his career. Yes, even better than his work in "Down and Out in Beverly Hills." He is what I guess you would say is the typical career army man.
Longing for his moment of glory in the war he has waited his entire life to fight. He finds himself conflicted in his duties, as he wrestles with his dislike for his position, as he reminds himself of his duty to his family back home. He eventually has to play a role he never envisioned himself in. Sending men to their deaths to sate his lust for glory. War has it's effects on the men who take part in it. Colonel Gordon Tall is no different.
"The Thin Red Line" is a modern marvel in the world of cinema. It has so many layers, that one cannot possibly unravel them all in a single viewing. If there can be such a thing as a beautiful war film, this is it. In fact, I would have to venture to say that it is the most beautifully shot movie I have ever seen. It is truly a wonder to behold. In my opinion, this is Terrence Malick's masterwork.
Thank goodness he came back to the world of cinema to remind us all of just how truly meaningful a film can be. He is an artist in every sense of the word. "The Thin Red Line" is to cinema what the Mona Lisa is to the art world.
A profound statement that will be remembered long after it's contemporaries have been forgotten.