Review of The Thin Red Line (1998) by Al M — 06 Aug 2010
Terrence Malick's long-awaited third film (after Badlands and Days of Heaven) is not only one of the more profound war films ever made but also a genuinely unforgettable filmic experience that belongs in the pantheon of true auteurs like Hitchcock, Kubrick, Tarkovsky, Bergman, Kurosawa, etc.
Every frame of the film, which runs for almost 2 1/2 hours, is exquisitely crafted. As with his previous two films, Malick still remains obsessed with the relation between humankind and nature. Malick's film follows a particular battle in WWII, but it is about a war in the heart of nature, a struggle that threatens to tear apart the balance of the world.
The film itself remains torn between its images and its narration. The narration, which seems to stem from soldiers' diariies, letters, or thoughts, never quite gels with the images and if you watch the film without the subtitles available on the DVD it is difficult to ever tell which soldier is speaking at which point in the film.
The voices merely hover alongside the frame of the images as reflections upon not the events of the film so much as the state of world in which such events could take place. Malick's images are more often beautiful than horrific, but their beauty even more poignantly highlits the horror of other scenes.
As the beauty of nature becomes the battleground for humankind's petty, military machinations, Malick's film points to the necessity of some sort of balance in the world, a balance that may forever be absent as long as the human race exists.
Indeed, one could say the film argues that the Earth would be better off without the human race, but then it also seems to suggest that the fragile beauty of the world relies upon the struggle between good and evil that lies at the heart of the human soul.
The Thin Red Line is heartwrenchingly beautiful and poignant, horrific, divinely composed and directed, and supremely well-acted by its almost absurd list of all-stars. It is a cinematic experience like few others--it ranks with films like Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey or Tarkovsky's Solaris in terms of the force of its images and poetic, elegiac quality of its philosophical reflections.
It will leave you feeling its power long after the credits have ceased rolling.
This review of The Thin Red Line (1998) was written by Al M on 06 Aug 2010.
The Thin Red Line has generally received very positive reviews.
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