A moving exercise in existentialism

Rating: Null/10 (6 May 2006)

Having seen the film I can completely understand how people can utterly despise it. They probably felt the same way I did while watching Castaway, several hours of my life better spent watching paint dry. However I was fortunate enough to first see the film as part of my university course, and am therefore privy to some academic insight. In The Thin Red Line, war is not the finished piece, only the canvas. The theme of the film is existential ambiguity, wonderings on the nature of humankind, our world and the next. Private Witt and Sgt. Welsh represent the two possible outcomes of existentialism, theism and nihilism. Its about religious experience, positive and negative. Crisis is a medium for religious experience, it sparks the sleeping giant inside that demands to understand the who, why and how of life. These themes are subtle, and it really does seem like its going to be a film about war. There is little hint of any other major issue at work, perhaps only the tagline 'every man fights his own war'. Either way, writer Terrence Malick uses war because it is the perfect medium for illustrating the anguish of the ambiguity. Facing death in battle is a likely moment to be reflecting on existence, are we just dirt or is some transcendent deity watching over us from the heavens? I'd certainly be wondering along these lines if my chances of being blown away were increasing by the second. Possibly the most tragic lament on the ambiguity of life comes at the end, Sgt Welsh's solo prayer to God, "If I never meet you in this life, let me feel the lack, one look from your eyes, and my life would be yours". His anguish is so profound, his cry for comfort so pained. It leaves you solemnly reflecting on our lonely lot. Its a truly wonderful film provided your in the mood to see it, maybe not if you've just been to see Saving Private Ryan and your looking for another moving drama on war and glory. The only glory featured in The Thin Red Line is God.