The Thin Red Line

Achieved Review

(September 30th, 2005)

THE THIN RED LINE
Mallick, 1998

I saw The Thin Red Line last night, which is surprising, as I was really not looking forward to seeing it. I had heard before hand it was pretty boring and it was 170 minutes, which seems even longer when it is already nine in the evening. However, I decided to go ahead and get it over with anyways. To me surprise and delight, it turned out to be a fairly good film; in fact, it’s one of the best I’ve ever seen.

It had the same effect that American Beauty had on me; it knocked me off my feet. The first thing that struck me was the visual beauty. Where as Saving Private Ryan is rough, washed out and utilizes a shaky cam (which works perfectly in SPR), The Thin Red Line uses soothing and graceful camera movement as well as utilizing the beautiful, lush colours found in the Pacific. I feel like I am understating the cinematography though, as it truly is some of the best I’ve ever seen in any film. I just love in the battle sequences how there is men dying and explosions going off everywhere, yet you can see the tall grass on the fields sway peacefully in the wind and shimmer gloriously from the sun. It looks like it would other wise be paradise if it were not for humans coming and destroying it. All throughout the long run time the audience is given nothing other than unequaled beauty when it comes to cinematography.

One of my favourite shots in The Thin Red Line is the one of the small bird who has been burned or shot amidst the fighting and he is on the ground squirming in pain. It was so sad to see this, and it wasn’t even by any means the only emotional sot or scene. During the entire battle sequence in the middle I was so overcome with emotions. I had chills sent down my back and my eyes were teary, which very rarely happens when I watch movies. I’ve never experienced this sort power a movie can have over a human before. It was like I was emotionally and physically there. The charecters were so fragile and I felt close to them, as if I too could be shattered. It even does an excellent job at showing even the 'savage enemy' had the same feelings when their buddies were killed. I don’t think a movie will ever be able to duplicate the power Thin Red Line has.

The acting and casting is also to be greatly complimented as well. All the soldiers’ faces were just right. They felt real, and the actors performances also reflected this with various accents and backgrounds mixed together. Actors like Adrian Brody who didn’t even speak made just as much an impact on me as the ones that did. I’m pretty sure this is one of the reasons I was so effected by The Thin Red Line. Another thing I loved was the slow, poetic voice over narration. Not only did it give insight into the characters, war, nature and life itself, but it was done by so many different characters, giving us a broad spectrum of character development, insight and personal connections. The way Thin Red Line dealt with it’s characters created a sort of web, or network, of potent and genuine characters which were simply enhanced by excellent casting choices and superb performances from all.

Special mention should also go to influential components such as Hans Zimmer’s stirring and moving score. The final attack on the village was photographed perfectly, but Zimmer’s score just tipped it over the edge and made the entire sequence more than incredible. In addition to this I should mention the technical sound design as it rivals Saving Private Ryan. The entire film was very much enhanced by the excellent job the sound technicians did with the wind, the ocean and of course the devastating explosions, rifle reports, bullet’s going by and general sounds one would find on a battle. To make all this even better, the DTS disc I watched the film on had an amazing track, which The Thin Red Line was recorded on. The editing was also marvelous. There are not very many cuts, letting the camera roam as the audience takes in the images. It really complimented the cinematography. It also was quite amazing how it is nearly three hours long, yet it was never boring. I hope both sound design and editing were awards Red Line were nominated for.

In conclusion, I can’t really fully put into words how much I loved The Thin Red Line or how much of an emotion punch it carried with it. I’ve always said a movie has to have a strong emotional core to be a masterpiece, and The Thin Red Line is now going to be my poster boy example of this. It had tears in my eyes and sent shivers down my spine. The cinematography is breathtaking. It is art. The images of the swaying grass during the fighting will never leave me. It’s one of the most expertly shot films ever. Good going Terrence Malick! Other major components such as the excellent performances, poetic script, faultless editing and Zimmer’s emotive score come together with the visuals and the emotional core of the film and fuse together forming what is not one of my favourite films. The sheer power it had was incredible. If you have been putting off seeing it like me because it looked boring or you heard bad things about it, ignore them and go see it.