Review of The Thin Red Line (1998) by Jim C — 04 Jan 2012

The Thin Red Line was the first masterpiece that Terrence Malick had created, and to this day I wish I could discover what was going through this incredible directors head to make such a personal and incredible film. The movie is mainly a war movie, but it is also a movie that tells many different stories about many different soldiers who's lives have been affected by war. I found this to be a incredibly intense and realistic war movie, also I discovered it was released in 1997 so I'm guessing that must have been the year for great war films with this and Saving Private Ryan.

The story is based on the book by James Jones and follows a large group of soldiers and their experiences with world War II. But it mainly follows their mission to secure a hill held by the Japanese. This battle was called the Battle of Mount Austen and this is a depiction of the soldiers experiences during the battle.

The plot is one of the greatest and most incredible plot lines to a war film I have ever seen. Saving Private Ryan is my favorite war film of all time, but on terms of story I would say this is much greater in characterization and showing the true nature of a soldier. Saving private Ryan was better in plot and realism, but that is not to say I did not think this film had a bad plot. In fact it has a truly incredible storyline and was very realistic, but its true genius is in the characters and their different experiences they have and I just simply loved it. There is something very special about this story, something deep they are trying to teach us about the nature of the human soldier, and I learned very much about them from this incredible masterpiece.

The cast is a huge list of incredible performances and their really is no main actor because they all have their equal screen time and each did a incredible job. Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, James Caviezel, Woody Harrelson, George Clooney, John C. Reilly, John Cusack, Ben Chaplin, john Travolta, Nick Nolte, Tim Blake Nelson, and the rest of them were all incredible in my eyes and highly memorable. It actually is a pretty special thing that I am able to remember each character with their being such a huge cast, and that shows true greatness.

The war scenes shown were incredibly realistic and made this one of my favorite war films of all time. They do not use constant explosions to make this some weird Michael Bay war film that is cheesy and just their for cash. Terrence Malick works hard to make this a realistic and as close a depiction to the Battle of Mount Austen as possible. I simply loved the beauty and genius put into each scene.

The music is honestly one of the greatest scores of all time. Almost this entire film has just incredible music to lead on this story and its incredible characters. During the war scenes it felt as if I was watching a moving painting due to the art of the music and everything else, just simply beautiful.

The Thin Red Line is a film that is impossible to describe in a few words if you ask me. If you asked me what its about I will tell have to go on for like 5 minutes to describe the beauty and how it differs from other war films. This is not a movie just trying to give us a good time, its a movie trying to get a important point across to us. I believe that the point is that being a soldier will change you, it will teach you respect, the value of life, and the nature of true war. It is a magical film in a way, I just cannot explain the pure beauty in each scene, the genius in the characters, and incredible direction from a man who has shown us a war film that has never been done before.