Certainly among the greatest war films

Rating: 10/10 (17 December 2008)

Mortality is the essence of war, the thin red line does not shy from this but at the same time does nothing to glorify war. This I feel is the paramount difference between this film and other, similar, war films. Truly it is difficult to compare the thin red line to Saving Private Ryan for instance, for while Saving private Ryan also deals with mortality it presents it in a different way. It is impossible to represent death on film, more impossible still to appreciate the horrors of war by watching a movie; saving private Ryan attempts both things, while the thin red line does not. The thin red line is a poetic expose on war, and is at its core a film commenting chiefly on the futility of conflict. Its interweaving of poetry and action does little to deify violence, but presents death as a consequence to it. If one were to watch two films to understand the underlying principals of war, one should watch Apocalypse now for the insanity of war, and the thin red line for the senselessness of it all.