Some call it malcontent...I call it poetry.

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 1999)

Despite the voices of rage and chagrin that has plagued this film, I, along with a small group of others, sing out in favor of this masterpiece. Masterpiece, you might ask? But of course. Terrance Malick has directed a beautiful, poetic, and paean of a film that strongly, and courageously, follows the artful appeal of APOCALYPSE NOW.
Malick has strewn the film with an anger so sound that it literally pours from the screen with every cry from a wounded soldier, with every image of dying man, and with every word narrated throughout the film. Malick, as with the picture itself, is more than deserving of many nominations at this years Academy Awards, however, Spielbergs SAVING PRIVATE RYAN did do a slightly finer job at portraying the negative aspects of war.
Americans have been spoon-fed entertaining films for nearly one-hundred years now. Maybe this is why many dislike THE THIN RED LINE. It is foreign to us. Like a Federico Fellini film, it has character, art, and symbolism packed within its walls. It is a pity that more films like this are not made. We have only been given cheap action thrillers that simply throw a story at as that requires no thought or common knowledge. That is a pity. Maybe some day the intellectual film, THE THIN RED LINE, will earn the respect that it clearly deserves.