One of the Three Best American War Films, Ever.

Rating: 10/10 (3 February 2003)

Directed and written by Terrence Malick, based on James Jones' novel, The Thin Red Line follows the C For Charlie company as they battle for a strategically important hill at Guadalcanal during WWII. As the men form bonds of life and death on the battlefield, the story becomes more and more character driven, and the men are fighting for their own survival, ignoring the outside world as they drag on. I could not do justice to the film with my words, but here it goes.
Malick and John Toll (a friend of my family) have created a visual masterpiece. This has less action scenes than most war films, mainly because this is philosophical. Many have called this movie "anti-war", which I believe is incorrect. Most war films now insult the viewers intelligence; they pose no important moral questions about humanity. All mysteries of the way men function during war are fully explained away by the director, leaving no room for the viewer to form their own opinions about what is going on before them.
The Thin Red Line does not insult the viewer's intelligence like this. Instead, Malick shows the ugliest side of a war which most people generally agree needed to be fought. One could arrive at either the conclusion that "war is bad", or that "WWII was necesary" from watching this; Malick is surprisingly unbiased. But the fact that you aren't TOLD what to think, that Malick takes no noticable moral position on the war, that you can't decide who's right and who's wrong in the conversations between Sg.t Welsh (Sean Penn) and Pvt. Witt (Jim Caviezel) drives many people crazy, as they are used to being told how to feel. Consequently, this film is stereotyped as being "anti-war", when it is not so concrete.
The performances are solid, although I thought the casting of Clooney and Travolta was a bit distracting. Nick Nolte, one of my favorite storytellers, gives a great portrayal of a man who sees this war as a mere game to further his career. I could say Penn was amazing, but I feel that way whenever I see him, so I may be biased. Caviezel did, quite simply, give one of the best performances I have seen an actor give...ever. Regardless of genre or time period.
All nations have their own legacies, and in American war films, this is by far in the top three best. I would say the other two are The Deer Hunter and Full Metal Jacket, again, films which many deride as strongly "anti-war", and again, something I disagree with. Simply showing the fact that war is hell is not saying that it cannot be justified; it's simply giving an accurate portrayal of the way war is.
Most veterans I have talked to say no film gives a more accurate potrayal of what troops went through mentally/psychologically in WWII than Terrence Malick's the Thin Red Line. This is one of the three or four films (out of several hundred) on IMDB I gave a 10/10 rating to. If you like war films, buy this for your DVD collection, and even if you don't like war films, rent this just to see what you've been missing.