The Thin Plot Line

Rating: Null/10 (18 June 2000)

What if John Wayne and Oliver Stone had together made a film about the invasion of Guadalcanal? What would you get? Something like "The Thin Red Line."
Or maybe something better--focus, cohesive plot, and characters worth sympathy. "Thin Red Line" has almost none of that. What *is* worthwhile is its dispassionate exam of the demoralizing; no matter how evil the enemy or how "good" the war, war is still hell. It is however a pity (and waste of talent) that combat's winnowing of the courageous and strong from the marching hordes of the average doesn't get across to us. Courage is instead mere naivete or disguised desperation, and strength a kind of inevitable brutality, and as interesting as all that might be by itself we still get a barely engaging story. Throw in a slew of sensual but too-vague flashbacks, battle scenes only above-average and an aftermath straight out of Oliver Stone of the capture of a Japanese base camp, and soon the demoralized characters demoralize the audience. This is no "Saving Private Ryan."
Strong performances from all involved, especially from Penn and Nolte, and from Harrelson were it not for a role brief as a cameo, casualty of a weak plot. The lush scenery is a big help, too. Not much else does. And when it all ends, as the victors depart Guadalcanal and a job not very well done, it is more evaporation than ending.