Thin Red Line "Highest" Art

Rating: 9/10 (15 January 1999)

Very rarely does a film approach the genius of The Thin Red Line. In contemporary Hollywood, where so much of film is simply "eye candy" with little social or intellectual value, Maleck has created a film both visually stunning and intellectually brilliant.
The days of John Wayne are over for "war" films. The last 25 years have seen a magnificent progression from glorification to horrific realism in "war" movies. Going beyond conventional portrayals, The Thin Red Line shows life within and without. That is, the inner thoughts of soldiers, American and Japanese, caught up in a sea of blood and carnage.
The film beckons analysis from the perspective of magical realism, where intense, life-like battles are interspersed with moments in time across the sea. Death is seen in different ways by different characters, but war is the same to all: it rips each soldier by the soul.
The Thin Red Line departs from the Hollywood main as it leaves the audience bewildered, with more questions than answers. To its last frame, however, The Thin Red Line is a paradox: the agony of few soldiers surrounded by a tropical paradise.