The Inevitable Comparison

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 1999)

The Inevitable Comparison of "The Thin Red Line" to "Saving Private Ryan" can be summed up like this...
"The Thin Red Line" is to "Saving Private Ryan" as "Full Metal Jacket" is to "Platoon"
All great films. All very different.
This movie is nothing short of brilliant. If you didn't like it, I can understand why. Often brilliance is dismissed as rubbish because nobody really expects it to be there. Don't be fooled, it is there. I have seen it twice now. There is nothing rubbish in this film. Like great writers and poets command example and metaphor to tell an idea, so too does this film to tell emotion and irony in extreme circumstance.
Nothing on the surface of this film matters. The narrative
exists twenty feet below the level we normally watch films at. And it lasts for days.
This film ranks with "Apocalypse Now", "Das Boot", "Platoon", "All Quiet on the Western Front", "Full Metal Jacket", "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Ran" as the best war films ever made.
Sorry, I will share no details on the film. Only to tell you that everybody from script, to production design, to music score, to acting, to direction, was right on the ball with this one.
My Pick for best film of the year Also my pick for top ten films of the 90's to date and top 20 films of all time.
$8 (out of $8)
see it twice, you won't regret it.