The Thin Red Line

Terrence Malick did Days of Heaven 20 years ago. Few, except maybe those in studio land, expected him to return. I gather he was waiting for the right kind of script. (I always have to wonder how independent filmmakers survive between flicks -- they're not getting back-end deals!) In his film choices, I'm certain he's less interested in plot than he is in the opportunity for creating cinematographic marvels. The three I've seen (the other is Badlands) are masterpieces of slowly, movingly filmed landscapes and that alone merits 3 stars, if only because it calms you down after a jumpy day. But a war film seems a strange choice. It's not that I don't get the impact of the juxtaposition of bloody war and the peaceful native countryside replete with swaying grasses and soft summer breezes, but in the final analysis that's veneer. The screenplay itself puts us inside the minds of many different soldiers' viewpoints of the WW2 Battle of Guadalcanal, from the contemplative to the rightly scared spitless to the logical military careerist. Of all of these, Dash Mihok's character made the most sense to me. An everyman off the field of war, but terrified and horrified and well-trained when in battle. Second favorite character for me is the "protagonist" of the film, played by Jim Caviezel, who does thoughtful like nobody else. And hey, there's George Clooney at the very end as a platoon captain...and you wonder why Malick couldn't use Clooney and John Cusack and Woody Harrelson and some of the others more often, instead of all those ultra-boring shots of Ben Chaplin and Miranda Otto (although the climax to those scenes is heart-breaking). You are alternately calmed, bored and thrilled throughout the film, but nearly 3 hours of that can put off the most avid filmgoer. I watched it in stages, and if you like Malick, I would recommend that approach.

year: 1998
length: 170 min.
rating: 3.0
IMDB link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120863/combined