Greatest war film, if not the best film, I have ever seen.

Rating: 10/10 (16 January 1999)

I've been waiting months to see this movie, and when I started to read all the negative comments, I got worried. Is it really going to be that confusing? That 'pretentious'? Full of empty characters?
I'm sorry, but from the second this film began, I was completely spellbound. The images are so amazing that I still can't stop thinking about them and I feel like I have to see the movie again. The story isn't really confusing at all, it's just not a typical movie story. I guess people are upset because they don't get a straightforward Hollywood story with all the loose ends tied up neatly and they can't get all teary eyed because someone died that they really 'felt for'. If the idea of a great war movie is to build up a character so that you really like him when he gets killed off, then I don't really think you're getting the point. No one life is more important than anyone else's...not the Americans, not the Japanese, not the animals and trees that get caught up in the cross-fire between scared children. We're all part of the Earth, we live and die with it, and that's just one of the many things that "The Thin Red Line" said to me as I watched it. It's a movie that really makes you think if you allow yourself to, as opposed to just simply drawing an emotion out of the audience. An incredible movie that I'll never be able to forget. I wish Hollywood had the guts to make more movies like this. 10/10