Review of The Thin Red Line (1998) by Ryan R — 04 Jan 2013

This kind of film can only be appreciated if you are willing to forgo the comforts of the familiar such as plot and character arcs. While I was watching it I found it to be beautiful and emotional, but when it was done I had to do some inner searching to figure out how this movie achieved that and I realized that this is not really a movie in the sense that I am used to.

This is a visual poem about love, life, death, and yes, war. It is poetry because it is fragmented and details are unclear, but at the same time the director evokes a consistent, tangible tone. Jim Caviezel is near to perfect as Private Witt and he seems to really channel the tone that Malick is going for here.

Unfortunately most of the rest of the (rather large) cast doesn't seem to find that same tone. Some actors were more jarring than others. Travolta comes to mind as one particularly bad fit for this movie.

The movie has such mindful attention to detail and it finds beauty in everything, even death. In a way, the movie seems like a Buddhist meditation.