Tripe. Utter tripe.

Rating: Null/10 (9 August 1999)

This was, without a doubt, one of the worst movies I have ever seen. It illustrates most effectively the "Steve Martin" syndrome - that is, the syndrome Mr. Martin complained about when he became so famous that all he had to do was stand on stage to get laughs. That's Mr. Malick's problem - everyone has heard what a great "artist" he is, so it is accepted almost without question that any odiferous utterance he emanates will be "art". So if "The Thin Red Line" does anything well, it illustrates how fatally misleading it can be for one to trust the image of a director.
The only thing this movie gives the viewer is a sore behind. The "poetic" and "lyrical" thoughts on war are flagrantly and painfully un-original (You will actually cringe when one of the characters says, as the music swells, "Have you ever had a man die in your arms?" How many times has _that_ line been used? How can you expect anyone to gain anything new out of such a tired cliche?). The inarticulate and painfully sophomoric "inner thoughts" of the tired soldiers are painful to listen to, and the action scenes are missing a key ingredient - namely, the action. What we end up with is a furious muddle of bleeding-heart sophistries thrown up on the screen as if they are the king's wisdom, as if Malick has discovered something new. I can just see him running down the street promoting the film - "Hey, war is really bad!" Wow, thanks Mr. Artist, we didn't know that already!
The most painful thing about this movie isn't that it's awful. There have been many awful movies before. The most painful thing is watching the faux-intellectuals attempt to defend it, invoking phrases like "It eschews the paradigms of modern cinema". Well, if you consider "entertainment" to be one of the paradigms of modern cinema worth eschewing, I suggest you get a sturdy cushion and rent "The Thin Red Line".