Brilliant use of environment as character

Rating: 10/10 (22 May 2002)

One of the aspects of the film that resonated with me was Malick's use of nature as character, as the impartial observer of the follies and tribulations of man. For example, that amazing scene when the soldiers are running across the hillside, and suddenly drop into the waving elephant grass and disappear as though they had never existed exemplified for me both the transience and insignificance of humanity, thus the pitiful insignificance of the whole opera of suffering that is war. And of course the persistence of nature, and its imperviousness to the above as exemplified by the coconut sapling on the beach in the last shot. The actors were all fine, but the finest character in the film was nature itself.
I suppose I could spend all day raving about this movie (I think it's one of probably the five finest films ever made), but I'll just leave it at that.