The Struggle Implies There Is That Worth Struggling For

Rating: 10/10 (7 January 1999)

There's a perfect triptych of scenes between Sergeant Walsh and Private Witt in this film--culminating in the second one on a fern covered hilltop at dusk, a brief reprieve from battle, where Walsh is talking to Witt, but also to himself--gently mocking him for his faith in "something better," asking, "what difference can one man make in all this madness?" The reviews I've read today missed the point of Walsh entirely, calling him an existentialist, oblivious to the fact that he's claiming to reject all meaning just after throwing himself in the direct line of fire in order to administer a bit of morphine to an already mortally wounded man. Every gesture--every expression of Walsh to Witt in that scene conveys...or betrays...love and friendship; I think he speaks in opposition to it--a belated prescription against attachment--a sublime tension between his utterances and actions. Walsh and Witt are a perfect yin-yang of bravery and cowardice, obligation and free will, compassion and aloofness--the most perfect and tender manifestation of Malick's theme of nature in dialogue with itself.