The Thin Red Line | Kirk Acevedo, Penelope Allen | Here's the Real Scoop on This Movie ...

The Thin Red Line | Kirk Acevedo, Penelope Allen | Somehow, it did not engage me.

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The Thin Red Line

	The Thin Red Line Kirk Acevedo, Penelope Allen 20th Century Fox, 2000 average customer review:based on 929 reviews view larger image
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One of the cinema's great disappearing acts came to a close with the release of The Thin Red Line in late 1998. Terrence Malick, the cryptic recluse who withdrew from Hollywood visibility after the release of his visually enthralling masterpiece Days of Heaven (1978), returned to the director's chair after a 20-year coffee break. Malick's comeback vehicle is a fascinating choice: a wide-ranging adaptation of a World War II novel (filmed once before, in 1964) by James Jones. The battle for Guadalcanal Island gives Malick an opportunity to explore nothing less than the nature of life, death, God, and courage. Let that be a warning to anyone expecting a conventional war flick; Malick proves himself quite capable of mounting an exciting action sequence, but he's just as likely to meander into pure philosophical noodling--or simply let the camera contemplate the first steps of a newly birthed tropical bird, the sinister skulk of a crocodile. This is not especially an actors' movie--some faces go by so quickly they barely register--but the standouts are bold: Nick Nolte as a career-minded colonel, Elias Koteas as a deeply spiritual captain who tries to protect his men, Ben Chaplin as a G.I. haunted by lyrical memories of his wife. The backbone of the film is the ongoing discussion between a wry sergeant (Sean Penn) and an ethereal, almost holy private (newcomer Jim Caviezel). The picture's sprawl may be a result of Malick's method of "finding" a film during shooting and editing, and in some ways The Thin Red Line seems vaguely, intriguingly incomplete. Yet it casts a spell like almost nothing else of its time, and Malick's visionary images are a challenge and a signpost to the rest of his filmmaking generation. --Robert Horton

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Here's the Real Scoop on This Movie ...

I'm going to tell it like is.

First so you know where I'm coming from. I vote Republican, I like war movies and I can't stand celebrities preaching anti war propaganda.

It's true, "The Thin Red Line" is very different from "Saving Private Ryan". With SPR, you have a small group of guys that you follow from point A to point B. Real simple. Plus a lot of the film is focused on war images. I think that it could even be argued that some scenes in SPR do not represent our veterans very well, such as Matt Damon's character breaking down and crying during the middle of a battle scene. And it seemed like none of the characters got along in that movie.

I have a grand parent that fought in the same place "The Thin Red Line" is focused on. What's different about TTRL is that instead of being solely focused on battle scenes, it humanizes the troops. By that I mean, it puts you right there in the field with them, and makes you realize these aren't faceless soldiers, they're somebody's wife, husband, or dad. SPR did that a bit with Tom Hank's character but that's about it. TTRL let's you really "experience" what it was probably like to land on a foreign island that's rich in beauty but you know you're about to go into battle shortly.

Some people mentioned that this movie is convoluted and that it doesn't focus entirely on one person. That's true, this movie is the thinking person's Saving Private Ryan. If you want to vege out and see combat while the soldiers remain automons then maybe TTRL isn't for you. But if you can watch a movie like the GodFather and follow along and you want more than CGI and special effects then you'll probably love TTRL.

I gave this movie only 4 stars because after the main battle is over, it does amble on a bit but then picks right back up again.

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Somehow, it did not engage me.

Somehow, it did not engage me. It might be because it did not focus to a few people.

I prefer other WWII movies such as The longest day, Saving Private Ryan, U571, Midway.

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