"Private Witt: Do you ever feel lonely?
First Sgt. Edward Welsh: Only around people. "
"The Thin Red Line" is perhaps Terrence Malick's most enigmatic picture, which is saying something if you're familiar with the works of the notorious recluse. Malick is the closest thing modern cinema has to the "poetic cinema" movement of yester-yore, releasing films that reflect an arcane vision of nature and life. Malick aims to tell stories in almost entirely visual terms, often filling the movies with coded images paired with evocative scores,dialogue becoming the last priority.
In the truest sense, Malick is an "auteur." It is a wonder his films ever get financed, but then again, he is a philosophy graduate (summa cum laude) of Harvard university. What is astounding is that almost none of the presumed pretension comes through in his works. They are ethereal, naturalistic, and ,most of all, life affirming. It's fascinating then to bserve these poetics amid the backdrop of mankinds most brutal tradition: war
"The Thin Red Line" tells the fictional story of United States forces during the Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II. It follows the men in C Company, particularly the soldiers portrayed by Jim Caveziel, Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, and Ben Chaplin. With the exception of Penn,those actors are relatively "B" list in comtemporary Hollywood, but their performances are nothing but stellar.One could argue that acting in a Malick film,despite the lack of dialogue, is more difficult than a Tarantino or Kaufman film. His films demand at once a minute stoicism and an unbridled naivete, both fighting an indifferent nature that surrounds them.
But make no mistake,Malick was no stranger to attracting stars for the film:Mickey Rourke, Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman, Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas, Jason Patric, Viggo Mortensen were all under Malick's direction. Know how many of those men ended up in the final cut?None. Clearly Malick had a different vision at work, one that would rely on the power of the performance rather than the cache of a name.
Unlike the gritty pragmatism of "Saving Private Ryan" or the psychedelic vibe of "Apocalypse Now", "The Thin Red Line" grounds itself somewhere in the middle. There are some blood curdling battle scenes, but unlike Spielberg's WWII film, I doubt that veterans are going to be experiencing painful flashbacks. Malick cannot help but be abstract. But war reigns him in a bit more than usual, and for that I was grateful. The actual scenery of the fights are absolutely masterful. Malick is a extreme perfectionist when it comes to mise en scene,and "The Thin Red Line" is no exception.
As far as the dialogue, much of it is depicted through inner monologue, even occuring when a brutal battle unfolds before our eyes. It is this contrast that really lifts "The Thin Red Line" into a rare stratosphere of war movies. Instead of the sobering treatment soliders receive in "Saving Private Ryan", or the maddening psychosis they receive in "Apocalypse Now", the "Thin Red Line" searches for beauty in the most destructive environments. It is a testament to the inner lives we all lead, radiant lives of solitude that cannot be extinguished even in war if we just listen.
-"In this world, a man, himself, is nothing. And there ain't no world but this one. "
:"You're wrong. Maybe all men got one big soul everybody's a part of, all faces are the same man. I seen another world. Sometimes I think it was just my imagination. "
-"Well, then you're seeing things I never will."
overrated movie, chap.
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