I Fought My Own War

Rating: 1/10 (29 July 2004)

The tagline, "Every man fights his own war" does actually ring true for the people viewing this movie. I fought my own war, against sleep; as this is one hell of a boring movie. It could be said that being boring is to the movie's credit as it is a good way to cure insomnia. Personally, I'd rather have insomnia. Watching this movie to cure insomnia is like cutting off your head to cure a case of acne.
The Thin Red Line, in a nutshell; "War is bad. It affects people personally, and it affects their personal lives". There is now no need for you to see The Thin Red Line.
The Thin Red Line follows the story of a group of people that are supposed to be soldiers. Supposed, being the operative word; as most of these guys would be better placed in an agony aunt column. If they're not moaning about something, they're comforting someone else that's moaning; "there, there", they say. What?! This is war! Where's Rambo when you need him?! The movie plays out like a children's book; rather than making you think, it just tells you things, "War is bad", it says, "each man fights his own war", you are forced to believe. Rather than giving you food for thought so you can come to these conclusions on your own, it just sets them to some sad music; and that is not a masterpiece.
The Thin Red Line is unique in that it is one of the few war movies that is actually worse than Saving Private Ryan. At least Saving Private Ryan attempted some character development, had some decent acting and portrayed it's message at least fairly well. None of that can, or will (by me anyway) be said for this movie. The characters are paper thin, some development is attempted by showing you things in the character's personal lives etc, but that's not actual development; that's just lazy background building stuff. The film also plays 'the long card' in order to win itself acclaim. Some people will rate a movie higher if it's long, and that's clearly what the producers of this movie thought, as it clocks in at nearly three hours; most of which is pure drivel.
This movie does have one good moment though.... oh wait, I was thinking of something else.
This movie is over-long, over-boring and over-rubbish and it should therefore, be avoided by everyone. After I spent three hours on this nonsense; I was annoyed with myself for wasting all that time. I could have seen two movies for the time it took me to watch this one, and as it happens I'd have been hard pressed to find two worse. Overall; NOT recommended.