Very good, but very long

Rating: 7/10 (3 August 2003)

The Thin Red Line: 7/10

This movie was an amazing effort by director Terrence Malick. It was his first production in 20 years, and many big name actors wanted to work with him. In how many movies do you see Clooney and Travolta play minor, brief roles? It's based on conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War, and depicts the horror of war quite well (but not as well as Saving Private Ryan, which itself probably couldn't reflect just how horrible it must have been to fight in the second World War). This has a huge cast of faces you'll recognize, and is almost an all-star movie. My problem with it was the length (2 hours, 50 minutes), which made the movie drag for a looooooong time early on. If I had connected to the (IMO often dry) voiceover dialogue I might have enjoyed the early stages, but I'm a little ashamed to admit that I was waiting for the action. When the pace quickened, the movie became excellent, with some amazing, intense fight scenes. The movie also finishes off quite expertly. Supposedly hours and hours were cut out of this, but I still think the movie could have benefited from at least 50 minutes being chopped out of the final version.