The Thin Red Line

During the Second World War, a company of soldiers attempts to take Pacific the island of Guadalcanal from the Japanese.

The Thin Red Line is the best-photographed war film ever made. The cinematography is stunning, from the lighting to the colors and even the shot angles; it’s a joy to watch. Unfortunately, the film itself is terribly flawed.

The problems start early, with an ill-advised voice-over that, like all the dialog in the film, doesn’t fit with 1940’s setting. And this is the root of The Thin Red Line’s trouble: this is a Vietnam film set during World War II. The character’s speech patters, their poetic musings, the jungle as a character, it all works in a Vietnam film, but feels artificial when placed in World War II. There are moments, scattered throughout the film, when everything clicks, but they’re too few and far between. Instead, you alternate between being dazzled by the beautiful imagery and jarred by the dialog. It’s a frustrating situation.

Compounding the problem is the fact that many of the characters bleed together. With the exception of Nick Nolte’s glory hungry Lieutenant Colonel, the various soldiers lack personality, as each speaks with the same wizened, poetic voice that doesn’t fit a World War II infantryman in the midst of combat. Indeed, even Nolte’s character share’s this voice before coming into his own.

Like all of director Terrence Malick’s films, The Thin Red Line is essentially a nature film interspersed with a human story, and on this level, Malick wholeheartedly succeeds. There’s a haunting resonance to the grassy hills, as the clouds give way to sun illuminating the soldiers as they race to almost certain death. Through Malick’s eyes nature itself dwarfs even the largest battle, as the battle itself is just part of a greater system of life, death, and the struggle for survival.

Yet Malick can’t seem to decide just which way he wants to go, and as a result, the nearly three-hour film suffers. There’s no denying its technical proficiency, and the battle scenes are some of the best filmed, but the voice-overs and ill-fitting dialog keep this good film from being great.