Poetic, terrifying, tragic and brilliant!!!

Rating: 9/10 (18 June 2002)

Terrence Malick directs this beautiful poetic masterpiece about the dark terrifying experiences that is war, and the brotherhood of men that help keep themselves alive through nightmarish ordeals that they are forced to go through. When men talk to us about there experiences on the battlefield and how day after day there main goal in life was to just do there best at what every human being is trained for, and that is to keep living.
We try to understand how it felt, how it was like to wake up in the dirt that you slept in the night before, the sentimental bonding you shared with someone for only a brief moment and then the reality of losing them to enemy fire. A lot of people paid their duties to there country, and death was the price. The truth is, we can never fully understand or even make an attempt to close our eyes and vision what some of our grandparents went through, or what others had to live up to.
The Thin Red Line is a film that is focused strictly on the idea to get that message through to us. It follows a number of poetic soldiers as they venture of into the battlefield scared, confused and unaware of the dangers that lie ahead of them. The soldiers are led by one captain, who's love and respect for his men guide him through the thoughts of losing them under the dangers that war is.
The film is filled with a large popular cast that has undying talent and it is this talent that is projected a lot during the film.
The acting and memorable story telling will capture a lot of the thoughts that will leave you helpless and stunned as soon as the end credits appear.
Every film that displays enough emotion and beauty as this film does has a message that can be interpreted in so many ways, that a gathering of friends will surely be able to devote many conversations regarding its tale of courage, friendship, and most of all the privilege of being able to breathe and wake up every morning, no matter how hard life may be.
The message I get is one that I hope everyone will one day be able to except because it is one that requires us to except how we live and most of all, realizing that you should live everyday to its full potential. The beauty of life can be seen through a painting, the way you look into someone's eyes or even during a difficult time such as war. Some how with the graphic horrors that is war, and the suffering that every man is forced to deal with, this film successfully tells us that in any nightmare one can succeed in finding peace with them selves. It is a film that reaches the brightest and darkest aspects of the human soul and should be noticed as being one of the most expressive poetic storytelling masterpieces of our time.