Review of The Thin Red Line (1998) by Callum H — 27 Jan 2015

"War don't ennoble men. It turns them into dogs... poisons the soul.".

Young men, old men,.

Brave men, bold men.

Men of all races, colours and creeds.

They come flocking, far and wide,.

To become the mistress; the war bride.

They take their arms and fire up the hill.

Called to rally, to fight, to bear witness,.

They prove their prowess, some their fearlessness.

But others fall to the might of the enemy, some physically and others not; the latter, cowardice they don.

They stand together, comrades through and through,.

Forced to act as one; as such, they believe they'll make do.

One stands up to defend his brothers, but he is shunned.

The beauty of the thicket, the green of the grass,.

As clear as one could imagine; a golden forecast.

But red flow litters the field, and its allure is tarnished.

Bullets flying, knives prodding,.

They tumble up and down, all in a state of marauding.

And whilst some find their targets, many are cut down before they are capable of doing so.

But the rush is true, revealing the opposition's weakness,.

The leader refusing to reveal his company's bleakness.

And so they charge forth, and force triumph into their bloody and slashed hands.

But war cuts deep, and wounds are not so easily cleansed,.

The muscles, mind and heart are still wary; still tensed.

And those who once were of healthy mind and spirit quarrel and bicker like animals.

One man is thrown aside for another, whilst his comrade loses love he thought he possessed,.

Their honour and pride besmirched, their heart and enthusiasm bereft.

Despite their hard efforts, they are little more than a piece in the puzzle; the game of war.

One individual is sick and tired of misery, and wants to see restored life and vitality,.

His sacrifice for his brothers in arms; he serves them gallantly and valiantly.

And by donning the cape of death, he brings life to those he treasured,.

The lives he saves innumerable; it can not be measured.

It was not a country, an ideal, a president nor the future citizens that he protected, but the ones he saw beauty in, and lived beside in the most brutal of times; those who he truly respected.

Not as compelling as I'd have desired, and perhaps a stretch too long, but all the same brutal, harrowing, emotional and engrossing. Another exceptional Malick work that deserves the acclaim it has received.

"Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth?".