Will Be Considered a Classic Later

Rating: 9/10 (10 July 1999)

1. Had this been released a year BEFORE "Saving Private Ryan", there would not have been the inevitable comparisons, of course. In a decade, the timing of the two movies will no longer have any bearing on how they are viewed.
2. To say that they are both WWII movies is correct on the surface, but that's like saying Monet and Picasso were both painters. WWII was a vast event and had many levels and components. "Ryan", for example, gave the impression that the war was non stop combat, because it took place over three or four critical days in the European theater.
3. WWII was a bizarre event, to say the least. While Europe was being devastated, America stood on the sidelines, perhaps compelled by its isolationist policies. The attack on Pearl Harbor was, of course, carried out by the Japanese, whose war had only marginal connections to that of Germany in the West. [What would Hitler, the ultimate ethnic cleanser, done with the Japanese, if we had lost the war?] We could not declare war in the Pacific without also doing so in Europe. Once in the war, America found itself fighting two different cultures. We understood what was going on in Europe, since most of us originated from there. The East was a society that, if not unknown to us, was certainly not understood.
I mention these things because the war in the Pacific was, by nature, more surreal and dream-like than it was in Europe. I think Malick captured the tone of the event there just as well as Spielberg did in "Ryan". This may be much of the reason why audiences were uncomfortable the "Thin Red Line". That area of the world is still exotic to many people here.
4. I completely disagree with those who wrote that these "uneducated" soldiers could not have so many philosophical thoughts. The questions asked were pretty basic for anyone could up in such a terrifying and life threatening situation. Through body language, Melick implied that their Japanese counterparts were also thinking the same thoughts. EVERY character was not philosophical. The complaints about this aspect are, I assume, being made by people who know war only as something CNN and other networks occasionally bring to us for our entertainment.
There seemed to be a technical problem, however. Listening to the film on my Dolby digital system, I noted that the other sounds were never muted, making it difficult to understand much of the narration. Several times I had to rewind the video to decipher these passages.
5. I was especially impressed by the discordant music by Hans Zimmer. As much as I appreciate SOME of the work of John Willams, I should imagine that the average soldier in combat does not hear stirring anthems in his head.
6. TTRL is not a paint by numbers or connect the dots production, which is why I found it to be so powerful. For me, I had to work to understand some of it. In the process, I became involved, which made it a very powerful movie.