This movies poses profound questions which are difficult to express, but it is worth seeing.

Rating: Null/10 (19 January 1999)

There is an ineffable quality about this movie. It leaves you feeling awed, drained, lonely, and sad. But none of these adjectives conveys the emotional punch to the solar plexus it renders.
On the surface, the movie is about all the things that most war movies are about: fear, death, man's inhumanity to man, violence, brutality, love, obsession, the yearning for home. But it seems like there is something more.
In part, this has to do with the way the activity of war is set against the natural world of the South Pacific. It is haunting and almost frightening. Nature is neutral to all of this. The tropical breeze ripples the grass of the rolling hills as the men seek out the enemy to do the most violent of things man can do. The breeze has gently and peacefully stroked these hills for ages, and will continue to do so long after these men have done their worst. The sun warms the land against a blue sky, pelicans glide above the palms, brightly colored tropical birds watch from the jungle. All of this goes on in the face of thundering fire, smoke and destruction. It is as if nature is saying, "This is but a momentary distraction. It will pass and leave little memory".
And isn't that true about individual lives? They are so damned important to us, but in the face of the endless cycles of nature and the eternal sweep of time, they matter little. That is what the movie says that is so chilling and so sad. Because like the men of Charlie Company, who came here and sweated, and died, we fear our time in the grand scheme will mean as little.
The final image of the film is a new palm sprouting from a coconut seed on the shore, as the ships of war fade in the distance.
Fundamentally, the movie is about profoundly religious questions to which there are no easy answers. In this, it reminds me of two other films: "2001" and "Apocalypse Now". Like them, "The Thin Red Line" presents us with themes and images the meaning of which we cannot fully grasp, but in some way we sense inexpressible and haunting shadows of truth.