Paradise Lost and NOT regained

Rating: Null/10 (16 November 2003)

"The Thin Red Line" is a very complex movie.It demands an enormous degree of concentration and should be seen more than once in order to listen more intensely to the dialog and/or assimilate more profoundly the series of exquisite artistic images.The destructive nature of War forms the basis for a philosophical essay on the human condition and nature in general.The movie makes no concessions at all to those viewers who are looking for yet another action-packed story of heroic soldiers who are willing to die for king and country.It is a courageous attempt to look at life as it really is.An extract of the dialog which comes very close to summing up the general theme, is the following: " They want you dead or in their lie. There is only one thing a man can do: find something that is his: make his own island" The weak aspects of this movie are mainly the following: it is too long: the opening drags on and the ending is an unnecessary repetition of ideas which have been amply developed in previous scenes.