A look at the psychological impact of war

Rating: 9/10 (16 December 2013)

When I saw the previews to this movie I was intrigued. It reminded me of Saving Private Ryan and I thought that it was going to be Saving Private Ryan in the Pacific. The reason I thought that was because I had recently seen Saving Private Ryan and from the costumes I knew that it was a World War II movie. I was interested in seeing it and I am glad I did.
I will constantly be referring back to Saving Private Ryan as both films deal with the same issue and that is the horror of war. The way they go about it however is completely different: Saving Private Ryan relies upon blatant images while Thin Red Line is far more psychological and subtle in its portrayal of the horror. Another difference is that Saving Private Ryan says simply that war is hell, while Thin Red Line argues that war is only the backdrop and that human aggression is the main problem.
Even though Thin Red Line relies more on thoughts than on images, there are some in this movie that stick into ones minds. In main focus of these images is on the innocents that are destroyed by the war. The little baby bird trying to struggle away from the fighting clearly shows how the war effects not only the people but the environment. There are other more subtle images as well. One is of the men that are discovered as the troops are moving through the tall grass. They are dead and have been so for a long time. In Saving Private Ryan, we watch people die, but here we see that death is already there and is ever present. Another image that is strong is how pathetic the Japanese look. Even though that are a formidable force, in defeat that look absolutely pathetic. They are starved, hot, and praying to gods that have not helped them.
It is not just the battle that the movie focuses on: it extends far beyond that. The battle in Guadalcanal forms the centerpiece of the movie, and one is expecting it to come to an end when they finally capture the bunker, but the movie continues on: and it continues on past the capture of the Japanese base and the sacking of the captain. When one is watching this, it is easily to begin to wonder what the point of all the extra footage, until we realise that Thin Red Line is not an action film, it is a deeply psychological film about the effects of war on one man's life and how he struggles through the horror that he sees.
The film opens with him and a friend living in a Micronesian village. They are deserters and are soon found and put back into the war. They have experienced the war and had decided to flee the horror and hide among the natives. This was not going to be the case as the US wanted them back in the fighting. We learn from him that he had left the army previously but he could not escape the draft and threw him straight into the fighting. It was something that he did not want to do, but he had to. This changes though when he kills his first Japanese soldier -- he goes from a quiet, timid person to one who believes he can control destiny. He has murdered his first man and he is proud of it. But this pride changes to horror in the scene in the Japanese base where his is looking at the pathetic visions of the defeated Japanese. Some are meditating while others are demanding that he kill them. He is getting simple pleasure from pulling their teeth out and placing it in a bag, and even then he feels that the bag is bringing a curse on him and throws it away.
He claims that the war has changed him, but when he returns he will return the same person. He has something to look forward too: his wife. This is the one thing that keeps him going through the horror. Even then, he fled and hid among the natives and we only hear of his wife when he returns to the war. With the natives he is a simple man with no past but his past is quickly brought back and these images continue to flood his mind as he seeks to remain sane.
The movie switches constantly between scenes of absolute violence to absolute serenity. There are two forms of the serenity, one back in the United States, and the jungle. Just before he dies one of the scenes of serenity erupt, and that is him looking into the trees and seeing the bird. At first his escape is to the memories of his wife and the love that existed between them. In the heat of battle he would grasp onto that, and we will be whisked away to a form of heaven which he desires to escape from. But this heaven is not lasting for soon we learn that his wife wants a divorce and his hopes are shattered. He has lost that one hope of peace and love and has thus lost the dreams that keeps him in the war. He tries to hold onto the peacefulness of the Micronesians, but that is not enough.
We do get a glimpse of other's thoughts, but it is Wit that the movie focuses mostly on. We get to know him intimately as he tries to come to terms with the war and his experiences here. We watch him change as he clings on to hope only to see that his one hope is destroyed. This movie does not look at what is beyond, it looks deep inside a man and shows us his hopes and then his despair when that hope is taken away from him.