LogFAQs > #924014415

#39. The Thin Red Line
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/ae/The_Thin_Red_Line_Poster.jpg
Dir: Terrence Malick
Genre: War
Year: 1998

The Thin Red Line is not your average war movie. It's scattered, dreamlike, almost mystical in presentation, and doesn't tell a "story" in a traditional sense. Like war itself, it's a collection of moments of nightmares and levity, pieced together through the lens of the countless men who found themselves in a foreign land.

This was Terrence Malick's return from his 30 year filmmaking sabbatical, and everyone wanted in. Famously, he cast virtually every star in Hollywood at the time and either significantly trimmed their scenes or cut them altogether. But by doing so, he creates that feeling I described before, which makes the war both incredibly real and transcendentally spiritual. It's ultimately less focused on the characters in the war, but the effect of the war on the spirit of the planet. Bullets fly through the jungle, trees are cut in half, the ground is pounded into dust. There's incredible symbolism here that is almost impossible to fully digest on first viewing, so you just have to sit back and enjoy the beauty and the horror.
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