Beautiful but murky film

Rating: Null/10 (2 July 1999)

Terrence Malick's much-anticpated third movie measures up to the cinemaphotography standard set by his earlier films, but its philosophical musings are often inappropriately distracting. It has a dream-like quality that is entrancing, but at times at odds with the subject matter. Some sequences, such as the attack on Japanese bunkers on top of a ridge, rank among the best depictions of combat ever filmed. Mr. Malick is also to be congratulated on getting his details right: the aircraft shown at Henderson Field, for example, are the right types in the correct markings for the period.
Overall, somewhat disappointing, but well worth seeing, and definitely superior to the much-ballyhooed "Saving Private Ryan", a movie that was badly flawed by sentimentality and predictable plot elements. There is no false sentiment in "The Thin Red Line".