A Pool of Ambiguity

Rating: Null/10 (24 December 1998)

Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of my movie-going experience is witnessing greatness I'm not fully able to appreciate. This is the case with "A Thin Red Line." It's a dense, ponderous, other-worldly film that refuses to eschew its fractured narrative in favor of easy interpretation. The heaven/hell theme did hit home, yet Malick didn't make a 170 minute film only to express the overplayed "war is hell" argument Spielberg assiduously made clear in SPR. The voice-over didn't involve me much, and I think therein lies the reason why I wasn't mesmerized. This could have conceivably worked better as a novel, but it's not a failure as cinema either (though I don't think it's art either).
It's gorgeously shot, remarkably directed and marvelously cast but somehow I felt uncomfortable with it. Hard to rationalize. I know I will see it again.