War in Arcadia

Rating: 7/10 (5 March 2006)

The Thin Red Line is not your typical World War Two film. Instead of focusing on battles and heroes, Malick's film looks at a group of soldiers fighting in the Guadalcanal, at their responses to the situations they've been put in.
The best thing about the film is its (Oscar nominated) cinematography. Every shot looks like a work of art, and while this is largely helped out by it's tropical setting, you can tell a great deal of thought and care has gone into every scene. Some of the landscapes are amazing, and Malick even finds time to fit them into the battle scenes, the natural beauty of the island providing a stark contrast to the savagery of the battle it hosts. Hans Zimmer's (again Oscar nominated) score is also hugely effective, a fine example of this being when the Cusack-led attack on the bunker starts to go awry as it highlights the toll the battle takes on the psyche of the soldiers.
Key performances come from the calculated, ruthless Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte), and the "soft" Captain Staros (Elias Koteas), but the cast is a bit too big and indistinguishable to really note anyone else. Whilst Jim Caviezel has the biggest role, he doesn't so much as as philosophically muse his way through the film, until he daydreams into his death. Such philosophical musings and mental interludes are obviously the basis of the film, but in my opinion they're used too regularly to be genuinely effective. There are only so many flashbacks you can watch and "gee, isn't nature beautiful" sentiments you can listen to before they grow old and hamper the film's progress.
It's fantastically shot, but in my opinion too many philosophical ramblings hold back what could have been a better film.