Review of The Thin Red Line (1998) by Maksim B — 15 Mar 2014

It takes years and sometimes a decade to appreciate some war dramas. Such a movie is The Thin Red Line. A triumph of content over action, style over special effects and philosophy over heroic war propaganda, this Terrence Malick surrealistic classic is a fascinating depiction of the contradictions in life, human violence and human ethics.

For about three hours, The Thin Red Line shows two hallucinogenic days of fighting, death, human ambitions, compassion, duty and it works as a sort of lyrical essay on war and the meaning of life. This is what actually makes The Thin Red Line stand out among the countless numbers of World War II movies. Dressed as a war drama, it is a typical Terrence Malick philosophical essay which blends different characters, ambitions and believes, while depicting the beauty and simplicity of nature and Polynesian life. Every single character is a complex human being, with his own vision on personal existence and life, with his own understandings of moral and ethics. And all of them are combined into this powerful, intimate and hallucinating depiction of war.

With such an impressive cast, the expectations for The Thin Red Line could be very different if one is not familiar with Terrence Malick's style. The presence of Travolta, Clooney, Harrelson, Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, John Cusack, Jared Leto, Nick Nolte might seem as a prerequisite for a great action, but they are performing in line with Malick's concept. Not only content-wise, but also technically, The Thin Red Line is a challenging cinematographic experience. With the endless grass fields and the camera "surfing" just above this green grass ocean, with no enemy visible and so little needed for someone to die, one could not escape the claustrophobic and depressing feeling of being actually part of the war.

Looking back in time, it took me 15 years to completely appreciate the greatness of this movie. One of the best all time WW II movies, The Thin Red Line offers an exquisite cinematographic and provoking philosophical experience which might not match the taste of the mainstream audiences, but it has already won its place among the greatest war movies ever.