Overall Rating
  Awesome: 50.66%
Worth A Look: 11.45%
Average: 6.61%
Pretty Bad: 12.78%
Total Crap: 18.5%
11 reviews, 161 user ratings
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| Thin Red Line, The |
by jules
"1 hour too long, but worth the 8 bucks."
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Mostly a great movie. Mostly.First off, this is a movie based on a movie based on a book. In other words, it's really just another in the long line of unoriginal remakes (Godzilla, Lost in Space, Brady Bunch, Inspector Gadget, Psycho, etc. etc. ad nauseum), the only reason more people aren't annoyed by this is because they haven't heard of the book or the previous (1964) movie. Mind you, there's nothing wrong with doing remakes! There are some GREAT remakes out there (The Fly, Invasion of the Body Snatchers '78, etc) but this is *NOT* a "bold and original" film (straight from a review I saw on the poster, fucking media hype).
This is a very good war film in terms of action, and especially the human drama. I was very moved by it. However, let me tell you why I don't think it's as good as everyone thinks.
My biggest gripe with this movie is that it's too long (over 3 hours). It's almost like Malick realizes he has a gem of a film and just keep going and going and going.
If the movie had ended after the Japanese are finally overrun at the top of the ridge (it really seemed like it was about to end) it would have a been a great complete film. But instead, we go to Part II which feels very much like a built in sequel. What did we get out of it? Our favourite character gets killed and it's not even very clear why.
We are introduced to too many characters, all of whom have these annoying "thinking" soliloquies (Witt was the only one who I really wanted to "hear"). Did we really need to get inside of Tall (Nick Nolte)'s head? I mean the character was as obvious as they come. And Staros, the captain, his views and feelings were expressed fine through the dialogue, why give us more insight into his plight. I almost felt like this movie, which
masquerades as artsy, was trying very very hard to make sure the dumb, mainstream audience gets every nuance. A side effect of all these introductions is that the characters sort of melt together. I'm a very attentive movie watcher yet a couple of times I started getting confused about who was who.
Other problems:
Who was shelling the US soldiers as they were storming up the ridge? The Japs didn't have artillery or mortars. This was obviously just a vehicle for showing explosions and bodies flying.
Why must all higher officers be portrayed as crazy and incompetent? Yawn.
What was the deal with Woody and the grenade? I'm sorry, but if a grenade blows up on your belt, you'd get more than your butt blown off. It didn't make sense. There are better ways of showing the randomness and wretchedness of war.
And finally, why the FUCK does Witt raise his weapon when he's surrounded by the Japs? I'm sorry, but that's not a twist. After all that we know about him from the movie intro and the soliloquies, this is like a bad mystery in which some totally unlikely character is shown to be the killer despite there being no clues to this effect. It's a cheap shot. I haven't read the book, but if there's an explanation of why he did it, it didn't come through in the movie at all. It was completely out of character. I felt cheated.
Okay, so those are my complaints. Now let me offer some praise:
The cinematography is fantastic. The colours are very rich (for the photographers out there, the whole thing felt like it was shot on Fuji Velvia). Some of the panning shots are simply brilliant.
The storming of the Japanese camp at the top of the ridge is one of the most intense and well choreographed scenes in any movie.
The acting is very good, although the cameos by Travolta and Clooney are really awful (especially the latter, sorry, but there were no Caesar haircuts in 1943).
The portrayal of the soldiers is very realistic, especially when we see the wretched Japanese who have been living on rice and water for months, who have no hope of getting new supplies or reinforcements. We don't get subtitles when they speak, but we know what they are saying because we just saw the American soldiers who were acting the same way. Mad with fear, courageous, pathetic, suffering, hopeless, confused.
Hans Zimmer's soundtrack is wonderful. Very intense.
The sound. Wow, the sound. The sound blew me away (and not just the explosions mind you!). The sound alone deserves an Oscar. Listen to the sound of the water as the landing craft race for the shore. WOW!
Overall the stories are quite good, I just wish there were less of them.
The structure of the film was good too, at least until Part II. It starts with an overwhelming peace that you know is going to end and as you get closer and closer you start to feel a dread and incredible anxiety and start to feel like you're there with the boys hyperventilating on those landing boats...
In the end, I recommend seeing this, and on the big screen for the full effect. In a way, you're almost getting 2 movies for the price of one......I expect lots of Oscars, and some are even deserved.
 del.icio.us 
link directly to this review at http://efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=734&reviewer=57
originally posted: 01/03/99 10:32:20
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USA
25-Dec-1998 (R)
UK
N/A
Australia
18-Feb-1999 (MA)
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