A movie that brings soldiers back from the dead, along with their hopes, fears, and dreams

Rating: 10/10 (17 July 1999)

Terrence Malick de-emphasizes the common depictions in war movies, and focuses on the conscience of few soldiers fighting in the Guadacanal. This movie is a true William Faulkner approach on emphasizing the human mind. Last year, I took year-long courses in HS about WWI, WWII, Vietnam, etc. We would read textbooks that would write about war statistically "100,000 men died for our country" blah blah blah. It seems that what we learned in school, news, and other sorts of media, would try to make war very patriotic. "A Thin Red Line" shows what many textbooks and propaganda seem to hide: The real horrors of war. I can see how many viewers may find "Line" very dry. This movie was full of symbolism that may have been hard to grasp. I believe that the only main character, Pvt. Witt, made the point of the movie clear. Pvt. Witt symbolizes the hope in this movie. Malick brings us to a world that is cruel and savage-like. The only way out from this death and bloody world for Witt is thru the power of the mind. It is only through the mind that soldiers can walk out of this war, and thru this mind, Pvt. Witt finds peace and serenity. Pvt. Witt shows that the real courage isn't thru killing someone, the real courage is sticking to the feelings that remain in your soul, like the love for his wife, "giving calm a spirit", and nature. At his death, he grasps all things he still possesses that will bring him to peace; which is ironically what he wished for in the beginning of the movie "to die with calm like my mom." He finds his peace and calm with the only thing he had left: the memories of his peace during his stay with the families that had lived in nature. The use of voice-overs helped objectify the soldier's experience. One soldier depicts how senseless war is after he shoots a man for the first time ". . . I did something worse than rape, and I don't get touched by doing it." "Line" stands as true literature, poetry, and truth. As the story builds, the meaning of war dissipates; war is not about politics or ideology (after all you don't see any of it intervening during the Guadacanal). I do agree that there were some things that weren't clear in the movie as well as some muffled voices. Yet this movie stands strong. This movie brings back soldiers from the dead, to give them back their character, their dreams, their hopes and fears. The film's foundation is to comprehend the deep and emotional battle within these soldiers in order to bring some hope and truth within the meaning of life. This is a compelling movie that takes patience, understanding, and hope that the other viewers feel the same emotional and complex feelings that lie within the film.