Thin Red Line

By
⭐8/10 

This is a World War II movie made by my good friend Terrence Malick. I would actually not say we're good friends yet but the friendship is ever growing and I would say he movies really appeal to me, even if this one it wasn't exactly what I wanted. But in the two I've recently watched, there is that uncommon meeting of gritty realism with dreamy romanticism. 

This is a gorgeous movie. It all takes place on an island where there was a big fight between Japan and the US, and man, what a looker. For a frantic war movie, it never lets you forget that this takes place in a beautiful setting. There are lots of high-octane moments, but they are often contrasted with sweeping shots of mountains and forests, lots of candid nature shots, all with wonderful orchestral music in the background. 

So that's the best quality, but on the gritty side of things, this movie all takes place within a relatively short period, so the action is all personal and claustrophobic. Saving Private Ryan starts with that wild beach landing scene, but in this one the action is very slowly built up so that once bullets start flying, you get a knot in your stomach. Pretty effective stuff. 

So for the two main things, this movie nails. It was kinda just everything else that left me a bit underwhelmed. I found this movie a bit hard to follow as there is such a giant cast and you start losing track of who is doing what, so it was harder to invest yourself in their goals when you can't really track the action. The other thing that I found confusing is that Malick is a shower not a teller, so I guess I really am the dumb Netflix-enjoyer who needs the characters to constantly be telling me what's going on and how to feel. But additionally, the infrequent dialogue you do get is often weirdly poetic and I daresay even a bit pretentious sounding. Soldiers don't talk like this! There's also a ton of noir-esque voiceovers and if I appreciated poetry more, I'd probably love it, but to me it was a bunch of gobbledegook. 

So yeah, I still genuinely enjoyed what a beautiful artistic endeavor this movie was, but I also felt a bit confused and I daresay bored? It's kinda like if Apocalypse Now was made by a refined poet rather than a eccentric madman and I think that's a good thing and I guess I'm glad we have both. 

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