Review of The Thin Red Line (1998) by Jibberjabber — 02 Mar 2013

The Thin Red Line is singularly unique amongst war films. In some ways, I don't really consider it "about war" as much as I consider the film to be about ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. The question that shapes much of the film is stated by Pvt Witt at the beginning of the film when he reflects upon his mother's death and thinks, "I wondered what it would be like when I died. What it would be like to know, that this breath now, was the last one you was ever going to draw." The Thin Red Line defies many conventions, such as the typical convention for a film to have a single protagonist. The (thin red) lines delineating friend and enemy are cleverly blurred in many ways. Visually, by casting similair looking men in the three main American roles and casting distinct looking Japanese men as Japanese soldiers. In the voice-overs, Pvt Witt sees a continuum of life, rather than discrete beings ("What if all men got one big soul Another soldier wonders, "Who are you that lives in all this many forms?" Even the lack of a singular protagonist shows how identities are dependent upon each other.

The Thin Red Line is not a typical war film. This film is not a celebration of how Americans used violence to defeat the Japanese on Guadalcanal. The scene that would be a triumphant climax in a typical American war film is emotionally climactic in Malick's The Then Red Line, but it is not a celebration. Rather, the raid on the Japanese bivouac and winning of the hill is upsetting.

If you really pay attention to the voice-overs, then I think you have to come to a few conclusions. Some have criticized the film for being "heavy handed" and because the "director tells you what to think." I think these criticisms are far from the truth. If you actually pay attention to the film, you'll find that voice-overs contradict each other, or a voice-over contradicts what another character says or does at some point. The director is simply illustrating that different people have different, often contradictory, points of view. For example, while two soldiers get into a fist-fight, a voice over states that "war don't enoble men, it turns them into dogs, poisons the soul." However, anyone watching the film would clearly wonder whether Pvt Witt hadn't been enobled by the war. Would he really be such a wonderful person if he hadn't gone to war? Much of the film is ambiguous and contemplative. There are no easy answers. When Witt returns to the natives and finds them fighting, notices that they have disease and the skulls of other humans in their huts, the audience is left to wonder if it was Witt's contact with them that made them this way. Did contact with modern man corrupt these people? Or did Witt's contact with the violence of the war corrupt his idealization of these people? I prefer to think that Witt's earlier, idealized view of the natives is what changed, but there is no clear answer given in the film.

Visually, The Thin Red Line is one of the most beautifully shot films I can ever imagine seeing. The soundtrack is fantastic. The sound effects are amazing. The action sequences are brilliantly done.

Some have criticized the voice-overs as being "unrealistic," on the basis that combat soldiers don't have time to think such thoughts as expressed in the voice overs. I think these crticisms are misguided. The voice-overs used in the film are expressing the thoughts that soldiers in combat have to repress for pragmatic reasons, but these are the important thoughts. Sure, in combat, soldiers are probably more worried about not getting killed rather than pondering the nature of evil, but the film is about those important thoughts.

One thing that strikes me about the film is how similar it is to the books, especially From Here to Eternity and The Thin Red Line. Both are excellent books and indeed some of the lines in the film are taken exactly from the books. The characters are very similar to those depicted in the books and I think the film captures the spirit of the books very well.

I think people too often say about films that "you either love this film or hate it" but it largely seems to be true of The Thin Red Line. That being said, I dont believe that people rating it 1/10 genuinely believe it deserves to get a 1/10 rating. Rather, I believe they are being spiteful and want to bring the rating down to what they think is the "proper" rating. I, however, do genuinely believe this film deserves 10/10.