Courageous and Groundbreaking War Film

Rating: 10/10 (24 May 2002)

The Thin Red Line is not your traditional war film. By Malick's choice of a more non-linear or anti-plot narrative, he has made a film less accessible to many audiences who often prefer the more traditional antagonist/protagonist multi-act story. This is especially true of a war genre picture where old clichés and story arcs are expected.
It is unfortunate that this film was released the same year as Saving Private Ryan as it led to many comparisons which are really unfair to both films...They are much different in their structure, intention and scope. For me Ryan could not hold the excitement and virtuosity of its first 30 minutes, making any climax unfulfilling. This is not to say the rest of the film is bad, it just could never live up to the high one feels at the start of the film.
To me, the Thin Red Line a much more fulfilling and groundbreaking film, not because it is without flaws because there are many, but because it tries to wrestle with a much broader scope of themes then simply the human perspective from the winning side of a war. Malick instead chooses to not only explore the human reality of war but also the very nature of war.

In this context his choices become much clearer. The characters are not archetypes but instead individual layers of the human exploration of the same question; they are almost one voice in a way. Their motivations are not as important as their natural responses and coping mechanisms to the absurd situations surrounding them. The events and stages of the battles do not build to a climax because there is no climax. Both the weak and the strong die, there are no moral winners and Nature continues.
All this can be unsettling if you come to the theatre expecting a traditional war film but I challenge you to look at this film from a different perspective. It is pretentious at times, for example, I believe the scenes of Travolta and Clooney are in the film to poke fun at the war genre itself. They are very cliché and I think the idea is to show how strange those clichés actually feel against a horrific and realistic war backdrop.
But if you give the film a chance there are very poignant moments where the sound, dialogue, music and images are perfectly combined to create some the most emotional and dramatic war sequences put to film. I for one will never forget the first time I saw the attack on the Japanese Bivouac. In a word, it is absolutely haunting. Also, the film has many layers to unravel for future viewings. I highly recommend you see it in a theatre like setting, as its impact is undeniable.