A haunting analysis on the madness of war

Rating: 10/10 (9 July 2006)

The thin red line's base story is about American soldiers defending the Guadalcanal from the Japanese . What makes this film so more poignant than any other war film is that it's not about the body count,the friendship,the trials and tribulations of the soldiers,the war on terror etc. The thin red line conveys the individuality into the soldiers mental psyche, and in all this madness you've got a diverse handful of characters including the zen like Witt (jim caveizel),passive cpt staros (Elias Koteas),the extremely aggressive colonel tall (Nick Nolte),the introverted pvt bell (Ben Chaplin), the weary sergeant Welsh (Sean Penn), the aspiring cpt Gaff (John Cusack),the sadistically complex pvt dale (Arie Verveen) , the desensitized sergeant storm (John C. Reilly) , the confused pvt.fc Doll (Dash Mihok) and the muted corporal fife (Adrien Brody). From the opening shot of the crocodile slowly descending into the water conveying the "beast" of humanity , to the closing shot of the coconut growing a plant from a sand bank at low tide conveying 'a new life' you know you are in for a treat, Terrence Mallick is a visual poet and is a master of his craft still unequaled by any other contemporary director. The cast is nothing short of astounding, the best ones being Nick Nolte,Jim Caviezel,Sean Penn,Elias Koteas and Ben chaplin the film is more about visuals of nature than it is in words each soldier maintains their sanity in different ways from witt's escape to his tropical and beautiful island daydreaming to jacks fantasies of slowly holding and caressing his wife . The thin red line is just another prime example of essential cinema it is nothing short of virtuoso film making nor is it a film that tries to pursue the viewer to be empathetic towards the Americans or the Japanese . My final statement to describe it in one word would be sublime , thank you for reading.