Voices From the Front

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 1999)

The Thin Red Line is the most ambitious war film since Apocalypse Now. It is a complex web of voices from various people involved in the Guadalcanal invasion in the Pacific during World War 2. It is brutal and beautiful. It is real and fanciful. It is a tremendous accomplishment for 2 hours but it lasts 45 minutes longer than that.
Written and directed by Terrence Malick, much of the story is poetry, dreams and beautiful photography of native peoples in gorgeous countryside. But there is a war here with the beauty and it is shown in all its horrible brutality. And under all this, the politics and ambition of the officers in charge is shown making and resisting brutal decisions. All of this flows together giving a bit of the experience of this war.
Looking at all of this, The Thin Red Line is an incredible juggling act but sadly after 2 hours the story loses its way. Once a main character finds out that his wife wants to leave him, the flow of the story stops. The plot stops, we no longer know how current scenes fit with the beginning and middle of the movie. This main character who beautifully dreams of his wife, comments on war, life, humanity is the heart of the film. Without him the film limps along at the end left with disjointed thoughts and images. The movie may be a half hour too long (the thoughts of the characters become repetitive and artificial after a while) but I would not have a clue about how to end it sooner because there is no real ending, it just fades away.

The Thin Red Line and Saving Private Ryan both ambitiously make comments on war. Yet for my taste they do not improve on Platoon or Apocalypse Now. For a World War 2 film it may be better to see something like Midway which plays the story straight and better represents a much more simple, trusting and patriotic time.
In spite of my criticisms I recommend seeing The Thin Red Line because of its comments on love, life, death and brutality. It is a filmed poem for the most part that challenges the audience and that is quite a rarity with movies these days.