Poetically Introvert

Rating: 6/10 (31 July 2003)

It is difficult for a film on war to entirely disengage from war's psychological dimension, and in fact few films do. Occasionally, however, a motion picture comes along that focuses solely on the psychological aspects of warfare. As one such film, 'The Thin Red Line' is an untypical deliberation on the mental internalization of war as experienced by a group of US soldiers engaged in the bloody battle of Guadalcanal, in 1942. The film is long and distinctly introvert, containing extensive narratives of the participants' thoughts. The comparative lack of combat scenes will inevitably alienate action-seeking viewers, but this is deliberate. Indeed, the film's few battle scenes are vivid, realistic and spectacularly filmed, a clear message from director/screenwriter Terrence Malick that he could have produced an action film, had he desired to do so. Instead, he chooses to concentrate on the long periods of inactivity between clashes, focusing his camera lens on the faces of war's disillusioned participants. This allows for several polished performances by all actors involved, above all by Ben Chaplin, Elias Koteas and Woody Harrelson, who surpasses himself during his character's final moments. John Toll's inspiring cinematography and Hans Zimmer's expressive score almost manage to mute the film's shortcomings, which include the manifest lack of continuity in the script -the latter being further impaired by a surprising failure to conclude and pull together the many threads unraveled throughout the film. Overall a refined production with several outstanding attributes.