Disappointing

Rating: 3/10 (4 April 2006)

I expected a great deal more from this film than it delivered, and I can only be thankful that it was free to watch, since a friend loaned the DVD.
There are several things I'd like to set straight: long movies don't need to be boring, and neither is a slow-paced film bad. The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly and 2001 are examples of this. But this movie just plain sucked. I can only posit two theories: One, I do not understand "art films" and thus am incapable of appreciating this movie; or two: The Thin Red Line was poorly written, directed, and edited.
What struck me first and foremost about the story was the totally disjointed manner in which it was presented. I've read stories told by men who fought on Guadalcanal, and while they tend to jump temporally, the reasons are explained. This film felt as though someone simply decided to cut each and every last transition scene out entirely, and leave it up to the audience to guess at what happened in the interval. Perhaps this was cover for the fact that a great number of events didn't seem to have any logical connection between them, in fact, nearly none of the movie made sense on even a basic level. The number of gaping holes in the plot was one of the hardest things to accept about this film, in my opinion. For instance:
*SPOILERS* 1: How did those seven men walk all the way up the hill to the machinegun position, without being spotted or shot, after being torn to pieces the day before by the very same guns?
2: Where exactly WAS this Melanesian village? How was Witt found originally by the Navy if he was hiding out in the middle of nowhere? And how did he return to it later in the film, if we clearly see him get on a boat, travel, and then land onto Guadalcanal? Was the village on Guadalcanal, or another island? How did he manage to just walk away from his company for a few days, then walk back?
3: In the "cleaning-up action" against the Japanese bivouac, the behavior they showed was very strange. Historically it seems extremely unlikely that a large percentage of their troops would just throw up their hands and surrender. It also doesn't make sense why none of the soldiers seemed to be expecting to be attacked by the Americans.
4: Towards the very end of the film, how did the company find Witt's body (and why did they bury him next to the stream)? Where were the Japanese who shot him? Why on earth was there a manicured lawn full of graves with SPRINKLERS in the middle of freaking Guadalcanal!? *END SPOILERS*
I understand symbolism. Life, death, rebirth, yada yada. The symbolism throughout the film of water. The connection of man and nature. Etc. But this movie showed no understanding of these underlying concepts. There was no dialogue, no consideration, no exploration of these ideas, only gratuitous repetition of imagery without explanation or thought. Honestly, I'm not sure whether the director intended to criticize war or not, because it doesn't seem like he had any real idea himself of what he felt. There are other films that capture what combat was like, or war as a whole. And there are yet others that discuss meaningful issues through symbolism. But The Thin Red Line failed on both counts.