Pure poetry

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 1999)

This sort of film seems out of place today. When we walk away from movies, week after week, knowing exactly what to think and feel. The strength of this film is that it doesn't tell us how to react. It doesn't push all of our buttons for us. The problem with Saving Private Ryan, while I did like it, is that it held our hand through every emotion. The Thin Red Line is more layered and ambiguous. With the cacophony of voices and the seemingly plotless progression, it captured the spiritual and emotional chaos of war. The monotonous absurdity of it all. The Thin Red Line is a very personal movie. In that it works in a fluid way with the viewer. Everyone can walk away with their own interpretation. After I saw this film I felt as if someone was finally showing a world I could believe in, a world I could feel. I had a shock of recognition: I too have looked at life this way. I have asked these questions. At the end, I felt a sense of wonder that has stayed with me even a month after seeing it.
Audiences today should applaud this kind of film. Art should disturb us, move us, and force us to reevaluate our preconceptions. To examine our lives and our world. It's art and film like The Thin Red Line that truly respect the audience, by even allowing their possible dissent. This is what films should strive for. To challenge us and to invite us to enter a world of wonder. Even if that means that some won't get it or won't like it.
Looking at the other comments I am struck by what a vital work this film is. The range of opinion shows what a living and breathing work it is. Films that everyone can love are too easy. The Thin Red Line is challenging and yet inviting. Asking us for three hours to sit and view life as a dream. A dream that is both beautiful and terrifying. After all of the Hollywood formulas hurled at us year after year it is time for cinema to truly rise to its potential as the purest form of poetry there is.