THE THIN RED LINE (1998) - ♦♦♦♦

Directed by - Terrence Malick

 

Written by - Terrence Malick (based on a novel by James Jones)

 

Starring - Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, John Travolta

 

 

 

"The Thin Red Line takes the war movie genre to completely different territories. This is the story of a group of American soldiers trying to capture the Japanese island of Guadalcanal. It took Malick twenty years to make this film but the end result is something completely new. The war movie genre can be quite explicit, but The Thin Red Line is far from being just that. Through its meditative and psychological depth, the film gets more and more challenging as well as open to individual interpretation as it progresses, right up to its ending where it gets poetic and hypnotic and its tone almost becomes a prayer and fulfilment of spirituality. Malick infuses his style on a genre that has always served a conventional or propagandist purpose and hence creates something that interacts with the viewer in a way that only he can. On top of that, the cinematography is breathtaking and really takes advantage of the nightmarish beauty of its setting, much like Apocalypse Now by Francis Ford Coppola had. Though it may not be the most balanced movie, especially in tone as the shift to experimental is quite abrupt, it is one of the most sincere and meaningful, beautiful and ambitious."

 

 

War, USA