great cinematography, average movie with bad acting

Rating: 6/10 (3 February 2015)

The thin red line was a great movie, however there were a couple of things that was just not up to par for me.
Let me start with the bad things. First of all, the acting was just terrible 80% of the time. This might be a combination of bad actors or bad script here and there, however, some of the lines were extremely cheesy and most of the lines/audio sounded like the volume of the dialogue was pulled down at the end, so i.m.o you have to listen very carefully, or else you will not hear the last word a character says. Another thing that was really terrible to bear was the fact that about 90% of the soldiers there were not willing to fight, scared out of their pants and had a cry face on the whole time. When someone had to go scout or flank or basically do anything, there was always a long silence before someone would actually man up and volunteer. No one wanted to fight for their country, they all looked like a bunch of cry babies. Fair enough, it's war, but still, they knew what they were getting themselves into. Not one guy stood up and said something like "alright men, let's show these Japanese what were made of!" Instead, they all looked like they were about to cry. And it's not like they were heading for Normandy, they were basically fighting a few squads of Japanese soldiers that took a large part of the island. Also, the movie didn't really focus on a particular person or group, instead it focused on some individuals and the rest of the troops, giving very little back story of any character and it feels like there is no real point of conclusion. They could have just shot all the beautiful scenes and had text appearing that displayed the narrator's words. I get what they tried to achieve throughout the movie and the message they wanted to portray, however the rest of the movie has no point. there is no conclusion other than the message from the narrator. There is no character's story, no real storyline except the narrators words.
In any case, besides that, there were also a couple of positive things. The photography and cinematography was excellent. Some of the best shots I have seen in any "war" movie. Again, they probably received an Oscar for best picture and if they didn't they should have, because the shots of the soldiers moving through the windy grasslands, or moving through the jungle were really good. One or two actors had maybe a few decent lines and the music was good.
To conclude, this movie had a lot of potential. The overall theme and message of the movie was clear, the cinematography and shots were just brilliant, however cheesy lines, bad acting and soldiers scared out of their socks about war just ruined it for me.