The Thin Red Line

Plot synopsis:
United States Army Private Witt goes AWOL from his unit and lives among the carefree Melanesian natives in the South Pacific. He is found and imprisoned on a troop carrier by First Sergeant Welsh of his company. The men of C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division have been brought to Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to secure Henderson Field and seize the island from the Japanese. As they wait in a Navy transport, they contemplate their lives and the invasion. Battalion commander Lieutenant Colonel Tall talks with Brigadier General Quintard about the invasion and its importance.
C Company lands on Guadalcanal unopposed and marches to the interior of the island, encountering natives and evidence of the Japanese presence. They arrive near Hill 210, a key Japanese position. The Japanese have placed bunkers at the top of the hill and anyone attempting the climb will be cut down.
A brief shelling of the hill begins the next day at dawn. C Company attempts to capture the hill but is repelled by gunfire. Among the first killed is one of the platoon leaders, Second Lieutenant Whyte. During the battle, a squad led by Sergeant Keck hides behind a swell safe from enemy fire to wait for reinforcements. Keck reaches for a grenade but accidentally pulls the pin and dies in the process. Lieutenant Colonel Tall orders the company commander, Captain James Staros, to take the bunker by frontal assault, at whatever cost. Staros refuses and Tall decides to join Staros on the front line to see the situation. The Japanese resistance seems to have lessened, and Tall's opinion of Staros seems to have been sealed. Private Witt, having been assigned punitively as a stretcher bearer, asks to rejoin the company, and is allowed to do so.
A small detachment of men performs a reconnaissance mission on Tall's orders to determine the strength of the Japanese bunker. Private Bell reports there are five machine guns in the bunker. He joins another small team of men (including Witt), led by Captain John Gaff, on a flanking mission to take the bunker. The operation is a success and C Company overruns one of the last Japanese strongholds on the island. The Japanese they find are largely malnourished and dying, and put up little resistance.
For their efforts the men are given a week's leave: the airfield where they are based comes under enemy artillery bombardment; Bell receives a letter from his wife informing him that she has fallen in love with someone else and wishes to divorce; Captain Staros is relieved of his command by Lieutenant Colonel Tall, who deems him too soft for the pressures of combat and suggests that he apply for reassignment and become a lawyer in the JAG in Washington. He offers to arrange a Purple Heart for Staros, to avoid the unit's name being stained by having an officer removed from command. Witt comes across the locals and notices that they have grown distant and distrustful of him and quarrel regularly with one another.
The company is sent on patrol up a river but with the inexperienced 1st Lieutenant George Band at its head. As Japanese artillery fire falls close to their positions; Band orders some men to scout upriver, with Witt volunteering to go along. They encounter an advancing Japanese column and are attacked. To buy time for Corporal Fife to go back and inform the rest of the unit, Witt draws away the Japanese but is then encircled by one of their squads, who demand that he surrender. He raises his rifle and is gunned down. The company is able to retreat safely, and Witt is later buried by Welsh and his squadmates. C Company receives a new commander, Captain Bosche and boards a waiting LCT, departing from the island.

Tags: insanity, cult, psychological, philosophical, atmospheric

Review:
While most people dismissed The Thin Red Line as the `other' World War II movie of 1998, it's actually a very different kind of film - the film itself is not hurt by similarity to Ryan but was hurt commercially due to the misconception.
This is an extraordinary film that can stand well on its own next to Ryan.Saving Private Ryan was significant in that it visually depicted war in a realistic, gritty way.
The movie cuts continuously between the external struggle of American GIs fighting to take a crucial hill from Japanese occupation on Guadalcanal - and more importantly, the internal chaos of war as every man tries to come to his own terms about matters such as morals, death, God, and love.Unlike in Saving Private Ryan, there is nothing patriotic about this movie.
The beauty of nature is always present, even when it is a setting for battle of destruction, and death.Though the battle scenes fall short of the frightening realism in Saving Private Ryan, they are heads and soldiers above every previous attempt.
In 1978, Terrence Malick made the hit classic 'Days of Heaven', for 20 years after its release, Malick didn't create a single film, that was until the release of 1998's World War II epic 'The Thin Red Line; my God was the wait worth it.
Despite being the same release year as the much more successful 'Saving Private Ryan', Malick's war flick will go down in Hollywood history as a truly special masterpiece..
Though the title is not really explained in the film, I believe it is implied, and could have many meanings - the line between sanity and insanity, morality and immorality, love and hate, companionship and loneliness, nature and man, war and peace.
what many people do not know is that this film, directed by terence malick, is without question the reason that Shakespeare in Love won the best picture oscar over the much favored Saving Private Ryan.
many people who have watched the film have said the same thing to me.the Thin Red Line is sometimes painful to watch, but only because of its realistic juxtaposition of humanity, philosophy, and the terror of war.
sure they love Spielberg, and sure Private Ryan was a masterpiece (and it really was), but nobody even expected the Thin Red Line to get seven oscar nods, especially for best picture.
However, if you're prepared to sit down and watch THE THIN RED LINE with no interruptions and give it the attention it deserves, you'll be rewarded with one of the most intelligent, poetic and stunningly beautiful films you're ever likely to see.Director Terrence Malick's films are alive with a sense of pure cinema with every frame delivering such detail and richness that you could swear you were there.
The only other person capable of bringing such an immediate sense of time and place and sheer nuance of film (although in a completely different way) is David Lean, another major league craftsman.Here, again, Malick uses his customary voice-over device although this time as a means of vocalising the abstract thoughts of the various soldiers as they struggle to make some sense of the conflict.
It's an interesting approach which allows the audience to identify with the characters in a far less superficial way than in, say, SAVING PRIVATE RYAN (the film THE THIN RED LINE is most often and most unfairly compared to).
Mother Nature almost seems to be occupying a pivotal supporting role as a detached observer on the sidelines, calmly and inscrutably watching the chaos develop.It's a measure of Malick's complete disinterest with the normal conventions of Hollywood that actors such as Lucas Haas, Vigo Mortensen, Jason Patric, Mickey Rourke, Martin Sheen and Billy Bob Thornton all spent months in Queensland Australia and the Solomon Islands filming roles that ultimately ended up on the cutting room floor.
The unusual music and visuals contrast so well that Malick sometimes fades out the noise of the shouting, explosions and guns, an effect that only serves to heighten the emotional power of the experience further.You won't see a more beautiful film about the horrors of war.
They are the officers who command attention and are larger than life to the simple GI's who do the real work (and most of the acting in the film.) The characters are mostly unrecognizable and you know little about them save the main characters like Pvt. Bell.
Life is one huge circle and one could guess the battle for the bunker on top of the hill could be fought again and there is no possible way to stop it, (At least that is what I was able to muster of the film itself.) For myself the most haunting image was the scene when the Americans stare at their Japanese enemy after capturing the hill.
It takes things way deeper than Saving Private Ryan or most other modern war movies dare to go.
Merrick is never in a hurry, and this pace suits the film well.The Thin Red Line asks a lot of good questions about death, war, and the ultimate meaning of life.
Tall so aptly puts it), the bird being born as a  soldier dies (it was not dying as many people thought - "we come from  the earth and return to it" as we hear in the voice-overs), dogs eating  a human corpse ("dog eat dog" - the soldiers are becoming desensitized  to the violence) the same crocodile, now dead, at the end of the film  being carried away as a sort of trophy (danger has receded for the  moment), the coconut sprouting a palm on the empty beach in the last  scene (after death comes birth - the cycle of life).
The balance between the action and meditative passages would have  worked better if certain scenes had been cut, such as Witt's passing a  wounded soldier on the way back to his company after leaving the  Melanesian village the second time and also the conversation that Witt  and Welsh have towards the end of the film (Welsh appears a stranger to  him, suggesting that he is simply a troublemaker).
Their leaders are not particularly admirable; one is quite happy to get his men killed if he can come out of the action looking good.Out of sight for most of the film are the Melanesian inhabitants, the Solomon Islanders, who are carrying on living as best they can while the war rages around them.
It took ages apparently but seems more than worth the effort.This is probably one of the four or five greatest war films ever made, right up there with "All Quiet on the Western Front, " "Paths of Glory," "Bridge on the River Kwai" and "The Longest Day." Never has a movie better portrayed what it's like to be a frontline soldier.Terrence Malick has the reputation of being an eccentric, difficult director - Kubrick without the fear of flying.
I wish more people could understand how great this movie really is and not try to compare it to other classics like Full Metal Jacket or Apocalypse Now. It's a different kind of war movie.
This one's on humility's side.Though it took me some time, The Thin Red Line has become my favorite war movie.
Are we seriously to believe that two men such as Col. Tall and Cap. Staros, with such different outlooks on life and diametrically opposite reactions to violence, have the same "soul?"Oddly for a movie so obsessed with imagery (particularly of the lush jungle), THE THIN RED LINE consistently tells us what is happening to the characters, rather than showing us.
Show us Arnold Schwarzenegger getting blown to pieces while Rick Moranis survives, don't give us a line like, "No matter how strong or well trained you are, if you're in the wrong place at the wrong time, you're going to get it." Show us what's happening to the people, not to the !@#$% papaya tree!The movie is also scandalously inaccurate.
Meaningless dialogue and pseudo-intellectual babble use up at least an hour of screen as the movie never ends.Within this quagmire of crap is an astounding battle scene, a brilliant performance by Nick Nolte, amazing cinematography, some half-developed fascinating themes.Like the last 45 minutes of  Apocalapse Now, this movie was too ambitious.
If the director would have just saved face, cut the hour of crap, the movie would have been just as profound, more entertaining, just as ambigious in a good way, and well, just plain awesome.What a waste of potential.
Basically, in the three LONG hours of this film, only about twenty minutes of dialogue are spoken: hardly enough to offer any hope of character development for the movie's endless cast leading men.
Another third of the movie is occupied by long pauses voiced-over with "poetic" inner monologue which sounds like it was written by an over-ambitous (and overly confident) college film major.
I have no idea how much time this movie had left in it when I left- I spent as much time as I could dealing with the imagery, voice overs and the desperate attempt to save this movie with the big name characters.While I could see where Terry was going with this one, I felt this film was far too pretentious and egotistical for my liking- and apparently for many others.
No, I did not walk into the theater expecting a big shot-em-up movie- but I did expect a plot, character development and after a couple of hours I was expecting an end to this tragedy, and soon.
The nature scenes, although seemingly misplaced as well, were also quite nice- but it couldn't make up for the ego of this movie.I think this film would have not instilled so much rage in me if it had not been nominated for so many awards- expecially best film.
When combined with fantastic performances from the likes of Nick Nolte, whose deranged persistence is a highlight of his career, the film is as thought provoking as the best of all war films, Apocalypse Now, and a comparison to that shows how brilliant a film Terrence Malick has created..
It forced me to confront the fact that war is young men and women, scared and confused, doing the unthinkable under circumstances almost unbearable.The Thin Red Line is not the best movie ever made.
Rambo III scores maybe a 2.Yes, that right - I would rather watch Rambo III twice over than sit through the TRL even once.THIS FILM IS THAT BAD.Do not allow other people to tell you this movie is worthwhile.
The plot is there but could be told in half an hour but instead is drawn out over THREE hours with wildlife shots, bad poetry and cut-scenes that have very little bearing on anything.The result is a film that is so mind numbingly slow and pretentious that all you end up doing is resenting the director for force feeding us his so called vision without once thinking about how his audience might be interpreting his inane ramblings.Insecure people who pretended to like this film will tell you how 'real' it makes the horror of war.
I started watching this film with high expectations, with a great cast playing a war drama.Instead the audience is subjected to a disjoint, pointless and utterly unconvincing miss mash of imagery, dialog and characters.This is one film that I got close to walking out of I stayed because I generally like war movies and I remember continuously looking at my watch thinking how much longer before this film is over or develops some sort of point.In summary my experience was that this is a bad film, it's boring pointless and will take three hours from your life that you will never get back.
Malick comes off as a self-righteous, self-aggrandizing, pretentious two-bit hack when he tries to emulate the true masters of film.I can sum it up thusly: if you are pretentious enough to think you can pull off a film without adhering to standards of plot, continuity, dialog, and character development then you bloody well had better be a good enough director to pull it off.
One reason the movie is so terrible is that it has this one bright spot where the pacing is adequate, and interesting things are happening.Add to that, the fact that you can't tell any of the characters apart (deliberatly, I'm told, to emphasize the point that all men are every man, or that armies drain your humanity, or something) and the oh-so-long and dull nature shots, and you get the war movie that sets the record for least interesting movie ever made.
It was virtually impossible to follow the strategy of the soldiers or frankly to care what was going on or to care about the characters.I think no one is willing to say that the movie is actually too-long, boring, ploddingly paced (inexcusable for a war movie) and poorly acted by most.YUCK!.
"The Thin Red Line" is a beautiful, shocking and tragic film about the futility of war and the hopelessness that the soldiers on both sides faced in the wake of Guadalcanal.
And when the climax of battle takes place at the airstrip, the camera swirls around the confusing mayhem of soldiers fighting and cowering--the scenes are both awe-inspiring and terrifying at the same time.And had the film ended right after this point, it would have been perfect.
Each man is different with his own fears and hopes, but as the battle rages, the men become less important as individuals.First of all, let me just state that I shall not be comparing this film to Saving Private Ryan - suffice to say that, out of the two, Thin Red Line is my preference due to it's nature.
It is hard to describe but rather than watching a story unfold I felt that I was able to walk around the film and take or leave whatever I wanted - there are no big scenes, there isn't one guy we're supposed to focus on, but the end result is still mesmerising.It is ironic that some people have complained about the lack of plot and lack of developed characters - claiming that Ryan was stronger cause it had a plot and had a collection of well defined characters.
Of all the films I have ever seen, good or awful, this is the first I have ever walked out on (over two hours into the movie; don't think I didn't see enough).
From the hideously slow pacing, to the ineffective cinematography and cheap effects, through the poorly written characters (don't try to tell them apart, because it shows through that even the writers couldn't), and especially the sophomoric political statement it tries to push on the audience--this was the worst movie I've ever suffered through.Expect to be flooded with Raising Arizona-like narration; flowery yet shallow, and delivered in a hick accent.
This film came out the same year as "Saving Private Ryan" - two blockbuster 3-hour World War II movies - but was nowhere the same success at the box office.
One problem was I expected more since I had to wait 20 years for another Malick film after his fantastic "Days Of Heaven." always one of my all-time favorite movies.
If you want to see a decent war film see Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, or Apocalypse Now.
It is, in fact, so disappointing that you can hear yourself thinking "this is it?"It is a film in the act of becoming a long and expensive screen saver image, an experiment in which a crazy and deranged crazy evil science doctor creates a big and ugly monster that after repeated shots of electricity doesn't raise to life but just stands there smelling of slightly corrupted and burning flesh.It's a movie that definitively cost me a good amount of will to live.
It was an hour into the movie before the first actual war scene occurred.
You know that you've wasted your money watching a dramatic war movie when you feel no remorse or sadness for any of its characters.My wife and I went to see The Thin Red Line.
I mean who but a die hard greenie would have the sheer audacity to open a war movie with a crocodile walking into a swamp and spend the next hour showing us what beautiful things nature and communal pre-industrial life is ?
This film split critics between SAVING PRIVATE RYAN and THE THIN RED LINE .
no one's that smart.I never dared dream that there could be a war movie worse than SAVING PRIVATE RYAN in the same year, but Terence Malick continues to shatter all Hollywood expectations.
This is what happens when a movie production company wants to emulate the success of Saving Private Ryan, then tries to make war into an artsy / psychological twister with no real sense of a plot or accomplishment, and WAY over-dramatic acting.
And the poetic stuff works sometimes but sometimes comes off as preachy and pretentious.The Thin Red Line is a movie that tries too hard, but that does not stop it from being good.
The movie was spliced together like it was an anti-war propaganda film rather than a theatrical release.
Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line" is a good film, peppered in numerous areas with wonderfully directed scenes, several complex and interesting characters, and a terrific ensemble cast.
But rather than heading for an interesting story, Malick's screenplay instead focuses on the "poetry" of war, for lack of a better word.Malick uses horribly annoying voice-overs throughout the movie, as his characters make profound comments on the nature of evil and the like.
During the second half, I didn't care.The movie's two best performances come from Nick Nolte and Elias Koteas, and Sean Penn and Jim Caviezel also make interesting characters.
After finishing this movie, I felt betrayed because I realized that I had just watched a good film that could have been a great one..
I wasn't expecting "Saving Private Ryan" or any other war film but what I was expecting, was a movie.