A war film of many beautiful images.

Rating: 6/10 (1 February 1999)

Terrence Malick's first film since his classic "Days of Heaven" proves that he is still a master of the medium. This is not the typical war movie. Malick is an artist and his art is film. Each frame of this film is beautifully framed, designed, and rendered. The color and lighting design are like paintings.
The battle sequences are very different than "Saving Private Ryan". There is much use of slow motion, voice overs and music with sound effects. The performances are uniformly fine. Elias Koteas must be singled out for his performance as the most fleshed out of the characters.
The only fault is the film's length. It's just too much of a good thing. The lack of a clearly drawn plot line definitely hurts the last third. There are also just too many characters. Some just come and then disappear never to be seen or heard from again. George Clooney just pops up in the last few minutes for no discernible reason than to add another star's name to the cast. They did the same thing with "The Longest Day" thirty years ago.
But enough carping. "The Thin Red Line" will be remembered as one of the landmark war films for its original artistic approach. It's innumerable painting-like images will long linger in memory.