Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line is the best war film of the modern era, period. It is an enduring film, one that takes its time with the subject matter and delves into the very soul of the environment and the characters. Like all Malick films, The Thin Red Line is a sensory experience that evokes emotion from a simple glance at the leaves or a look at the flowing water below. Malick’s tenacity to capture the atmosphere in which he dwells is one of the greatest parts of his films, but The Thin Red Line proves that his configuration of battle sequences and character development isn’t bad either.
The film marked Malick’s return to filmmaking after a twenty year absence. As such, the line-up to work with the director was massive and featured many of Hollywood’s A-listers. The casting process was extensive, to say the least, with actors from all corners of Hollywood looking for parts. Kevin Costner, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise all expressed interest in appearing in the film. Billy Bob Thornton, Viggo Mortensen, Gary Oldman, Mickey Rourke, and others all acted in it but had their scenes cut due to length constraints.
Malick’s film covers the fictional story of a United States forces company during the Second World War. The men are fighting in the Battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theatre. Malick focuses on some of the individuals in the C Company, most notably Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte), Private Witt (James Caviezel), and Private Bell (Ben Chaplin).
Colonel Tall is trying to impress his superiors, namely Brigadier General Quintard (John Travolta), so he pushes his men hard and makes several bad decisions. His fixation with getting recognized as a capable leader drives events in the film and costs many lives. Private Witt is introduced as the film opens. He has gone AWOL and is discovered on an island in the South Pacific. When a military boat picks him up, he is chided by First Sergeant Welsh (Sean Penn) and forced back to the front. Private Bell’s story is told in part through flashbacks, as we learn of his relationship with his wife and how it dissolves through time.
This is no run of the mill war movie. Many war films, such as Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan (which came out the same year), often provide a more action-oriented focus. With The Thin Red Line, Malick focuses on the nuances of war and the emotions behind it. He avoids linear construction, instead composing various events that lead us through the frenzied haze of warfare.
This is a movie that works more as a piece of poetry or like a true piece of art. Its focus is elsewhere and, while that may be disorienting to some, it is the idyllic capture of war and the evil that men do that makes this one stand apart from the norm. Malick’s desire to show the incongruous nature of war, to show the pandemonium, to show the battle without the action and without the hyped up half-truths so common in American films, and to show the often-abrupt conclusions of things is immeasurably woven into the fabric of this movie.
It is a symphony. The film opens with strings warming up in an orchestra as Malick shows us a world untouched by the scarring of war. When we’re introduced to Witt on the island, we see the wholesomeness of life without the appointment of evil. When Witt’s internal dialogue wonders how malevolence got into the world and how we lost the love we were given, we know where he’s getting it from.
While Saving Private Ryan is rumination on the peripheral costs of war and on the “price of freedom,” The Thin Red Line is so much more. It is a meditation on the internal costs of war, on the stain war puts on the souls of men, and on the price that is paid for us all through our own desire to do evil to one another. It is not an anti-war film, mind you. It is real.
Malick gives us pause with The Thin Red Line. He makes us wonder about crossing the line and about the costs associated with what happens when we do. He gives us reasons to weigh up what we’re seeing and doesn’t flamboyantly manoeuvre a consequence. Instead, it’s art. It’s an open door to the upsetting and blood-spattered world of combat. Like Malick’s other pieces, The Thin Red Line is a reflection on the stuff of life. It is the best and most fitting film about war I have ever seen.
10/10
Trailer:
