Sorry, I can't justify incoherent rambling

Rating: Null/10 (16 January 1999)

Sometimes when you try to reach the stars, you realize how low the floor is...
`The Thin Red Line' It's hard to really put into words how odd this film is. It would help if the film knew what it was. A three hour `inner child' meditation set during the taking of ONE hill during World War 2. It's easy to say the battle scenes are exciting, they're battle scenes... that's what they're there for. But the rest of the film is painfully slow and mortifyingly tedious. Some may call it art, some might be entranced - I was p****d. I feel really sorry for Sean Peen, John C. Reilly, George Clooney, Nick Stahl, and scores of other actors who's parts were severely trimmed to one line cameos. Those `star' actors are nice to have, with Malick's unprofessional attention to character, it's all we get to tell who's from who. To sacrifice great acting in favor of nature shots and aimless voice-overs is a real shame. The movie forgoes plot A B C thinking in favor of just rambling along. I'm not looking for rigid structure here, just a nice flaky pie crust of form would have been nice. Malick should have had a leash on this one. This film looks and feels like the work of an insane man. Only Elias Koteas, Ben Chaplin and Jim Caviezel register strongly - and only because Malick amazingly left their back story in the final film. I do like the Stedicam glides that are used liberally, and who can say anything bad about the location? Gorgeous. I get the sinking feeling that the critics who praise this film don't want to look bad in front of their peers. Tough to sit through, and even tougher to understand.