Review of The Thin Red Line (1998) by Paul S — 05 May 2012

Somehow this surrealistic rumination on nature (both phyical and psychological)manages to become the most real of war films. All of the grass level filming, where you can't really see the enemy... claustrophic and metaphoric at the same time. This is the zen of war - the film really puts you right there, letting you see all the casualties and conflicts and letting you decide which path you would take if you were "enlisted".

Fine performances abound, and I found Nick Nolte's Colonel Tall to be an awesome portrayal.

14 years have passed with this film, and I found it fun to see all the actors who just "show up" in cameo roles, like John Travolta and George Clooney.

My only real complaints about this film have to do with pacing and length. At 3 hours, there certainly was ample opportunity for some judicious editing (many a scene, especially the flashbacks and more surreal material, could have been shortened) - which would have given a tighter narrative; but even that wouldn't have covered the big "breather" that the film takes about 3/4 of the way through. After the hill is taken and Charly Co returns to base camp, the film loses all momentum dealing with the aftermath of the campaign, which makes the then repositioning of the company up river under new and incompetent command, seem a superflous tag - a feeling compounded by the sacrifice made by the film's narrator and "soul". Better if the film would have left out this portion of the film entirely and cut to the company leaving Guadacanal on the LCV.

Yet, in spite of these obvious missteps, the film is compelling, and its ruminations on the origin of evil and mankind's loss of harmony make this film a must see.