Cold and cool. Ultimately un-moving.

Rating: Null/10 (20 September 1999)

Yeah, yeah, yeah.
You`ve heard it and you`ll hear it again : "Why did this movie see no success while Saving Private Ryan did?".
I`ll tell you why.
This is a classic example of a great book gone bad on film - well, not necessarily gone bad - but gone wrong. Totally.
First off; lousy casting.
This movie is filled with famous faces under all those helmets, ringing Hollywood names, clean cut american jaws, real "jack n dianes" as Mellencamp would say.
Clooney. Penn. Nolte. The list is endless.
Why? Why? Why?
Malick is pulling a Woody Allen here. Only - it doesn`t work.
We see Nolte and we follow him, are moved and disgusted with him, feel for him, and loathe him. His performance is spell-binding. Definitely. The only high.
As for the rest .... waste of ammo. Especially Penn - with high greasy surf hair - is tired, dazed, un-moving. Yawn.
They all are. This is like sending the army of dead into battle.
Or the Federation droid army from Star Wars Episode 1. Faceless and lifeless, the young men move in...
THATS HOW IT WAS somebody`ll say. Well, maybe, in arts, but not in REAL LIFE.
Malick`s move is intentional. He bombards you with symbols and metaphors (shots and stills of animals, the wives back in the US, scenes of the men swimming, smiling, living the Bounty life) trying to purvey that a soldier`s fear and questions of life need no messenger, they should be common knowledge. Rightfully so, only he forgets to make it at all interesting.
We don`t care. This is Apocalypse Now Light. With extra sugar.
We care for the boys in Saving Private Ryan (SPR) because they bleed, cry, scream, feel and MOST IMPORTANTLY talk and communicate like human beings - not like puppets on a string controlled by Malick.
SPR brought war to the viewer, right up front. Now, this movie doesn`t have to do that at all. Only this movie tries to make us believe that the soldiers had James Joyce and higher philosophies of life on their minds every other minute as they crawled up hill in battle. It`s unbelievable, it`s too stuck-up.
The tall green grass sways beatifully in many of the scenes where they try to take that hill from the Japanese, but you are left with the feeling of Malick asking for reshoots if the wind doesn`t carry the grass just to his liking, NO MATTER how well the actors just did their scene. Yeah, it`s nice camera work, but thats really a negative when your story is a no-story.
Malick has heart, no doubts there. Only he needs to be able to communicate his visions much better.
Cold and cool, the Thin Red Line is window dressing. A heavier, more beautiful version of Hamburger Hill - lacking the power of Platoon, the realism and in-your-face attitude of Saving Private Ryan, even the coolness and provocative nature of Full Metal Jacket and the drama and thoughtful, believable pocket-philosophy of Apocalypse Now.
By-the-way : Watch out for John-I-Have-My-Own-Jet-Travolta in a horrible role as commanding officer aboard the hangarship in the beginning. He delivers a Pulp Fiction meets John Wayne version of old time Hollywood war movie commanders. With his "ain`t it cool" cigarete moves. Unwillingly funny, you`ll look away. Yuck!