Too many viewpoints? Choppy? Was supposed to go for 9 hours

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2007)

Terrence Malick reminds me more of a painter than a film maker, in that he doesn't seem really connected or concerned with how an audience is going to respond to his films. He simply makes them, puts them on display and lets you think whatever you're going to think.
Apparently the first cut Terrence Malick did was 9 hours long.
Although even I could never sit through a 9 hour film, i can understand why the finished product (coming in just shy of 3 hours) appears choppy or not fleshed out enough, and why some key players seem only to flit in and out like hummingbirds. But, given these constraints, Malick still delivered whatm, to me, is one of the few definitive "anti" war films out there.
Okay, in my slightly annoying over-analysing of this film i came up with a few things I call "flashes of brilliance", moments in a movie that make me go "whoah...that was COOL!" basically...
Anyways, some flashes of brilliance in Thin Red Line:
1. Capt Staros (Elias Koteas) close up shot of his face as he wonders aloud: "The Japs gotta have something protecting those approaches..." The scene immediately cuts to a POV from a Japanese machine gun bunker. There is total silence, and the barrel simply tracks back and forth, slow and menacing, letting WE the audience know that Staros is indeed correct.
2. Contrasts - many examples of course in TRL, but my favourite has to be the baby bird, a struggling new life in the mud as we hear the thunder of war all around. Brilliant. (oh and FYI if you have ever actually SEEN a baby bird being born you will realise this baby bird is NOT dying, as some commenters have stated)
3. POV shots as the US troops storm the Japanese encampment. No more needs to be said.
4. Difficult scene to watch - the American GI "talking" with a wounded Japanese soldier, being so casually vicious and evil, but speaking in such a slow, gentle way, before leaning over and pulling gold teeth from a dead man's mouth. Chilling.
5. A soldier crawling through long grass and the long grass touching his face reminds him of his wife's caress. Inspired brilliance, IMO.
The film is not perfect. It's lengthy and convoluted, and has too many viewpoints. A more narrow field of focus would have helped the film, as it is, it's a little "detached" in that you don't feel as much for these young men as you should in this situation.
Although the moment near the end, one of Sean Penn's final "inner-monologues", I paraphrase, but one sentence ends with "If I never meet you in this life, let me feel the lack..." a moment that hit me in the heart and made me swallow, big time.
Many have complained about the lack of dialogue. The beauty of Terrence Malick's writing is what is NOT said. Like the scene where Witt gently washes water over a comrade's head who has just come from a battle and is crying.
But, then again, I'm just a PSEUDO INTELLECTUAL so what would I know? ;)