Review of The Thin Red Line (1998) by Juan David C — 25 May 2014
World cinema has some extremely painful masterpieces (many times underrated) that are easy to understand, but challenging and definitely uncomfortable to view. Some of those films that describe an everlasting world of bigotry, destruction and death are Schindler's List, 12 Years a Slave, The Hurt Locker, Black Hawk Down, Children of Men, Saving Private Ryan, No Man's Land, The Deer Hunter, Hunger, Come and See, Full Metal Jacket, Lone Survivor, Munich, The Pianist, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and even James Cameron's Avatar.
Unfortunately, films with violence force artists to censor themselves in undesirable ways. On the other hand, directors like Coppola, Spielberg, Scott, Kubrick, Cuarón and Polanski tackle the concepts of hatred and cruelty in ethical ways.
They're not meant to be comfortable or easy to watch; they're meant to invite debate. They want the audiences judge the characters according to their motivations: Are the characters honorable or despicable, do they elicit praise or disdain, are they trustworthy or two-faced, why do they behave the way that they do? These questions are ethical questions and because film is a social medium designed to elicit audience response, they merit our attention and serious academic consideration.
This review of The Thin Red Line (1998) was written by Juan David C on 25 May 2014.
The Thin Red Line has generally received very positive reviews.
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