Depressingly boring

Rating: 1/10 (27 January 1999)

Now I understand why they titled this movie "The Thin Red Line." It's because there is a Thin Red Line between Boredom and Frustration.
This film is long, boring, and offers nothing that comes close to entertainment. I watched this movie with seven other friends, and none of us had a single good thing to say about it. We all shared a common agreement that this is the worst film of 1999, 1998, and maybe even the decade of the 90s.
How else can you describe a film that jumps around with little reason or explanation. There is no story here. It's just a hodge podge of various characters who have stray thoughts while we are shown cinematograpy that makes little sense. If I wanted to watch a documentary on the beautiful wildlife of the Southeast Asian Region I would have tuned in to the Discovery Channel. What does this have to do with a war movie?
I went to see what was inconceivably billed as an Academy Award Winning Film based on The Battle of Guadal Canal. What I witnessed was a long, boring, and meaningless depiction of a confused war. Nick Nolte's character had no consistency, for example. One minute he's playing hard ball with one of his subordinates. The next minute, he's trying to butter him up with promises of purple hearts, silver stars, and other bribes. The story begins with a close up of an Alligator in a swamp. OK, that really has a lot to do with a war story, right?
The early scenes are set somewhere in Southeast Asia where a couple of deserters are fraternizing with the natives. The next thing you know, they are back on a troop ship heading to the Guadal Canal. There's no transition here. One moment these guys are on the beach. The next minute, one of them is being lectured by Sgt. Sean Penn about the morals of being a good soldier. Did I miss something in between or was it just a bad edit?
For the next 2 and a half hours the film concentrates on a group of Americans trying to advance in the dense jungle of Guadal Canal. Yet, when the movie finally comes to a merciful end, you ask yourself "What Happened?"
There is no climax to the movie. This movie just goes on and on and on and on, then ends. No big ending. Rather, a cheap ending. The soldiers got to leave the war. That's it.
What is this movie about? It's about 2 and a half hours too long. Don't waste your time. I wish I hadn't.