The Thin Red Line (rewatch)
Posted by martinteller on October 3, 2010
There are too many amazing war films to go willy-nilly declaring this “the greatest”, but it’s certainly one of them. And probably the most poetic, beautiful and thoughtful of them all. There’s so much to be mined from this film, both in the cinematic language and the deceptively simple narration. This time I was struck by how much Malick emphasizes the conflict of singularity vs. community. Much of the language involved people commenting, both overtly and subtly, about either their status as a separate individual or as a member of a squad, a nation, a marriage, a race, a nature. Once I became aware of it, I was seeing it everywhere, this focus on emphasizing the person as both a singular being and as a part of several different wholes. Beyond the philosophical musings, the movie also contains first-rate action, and the middle section — somewhere around an hour devoted to storming a single hill — is some of the most riveting battle footage on celluloid. I’m still holding back a notch from the “masterpiece” rating for this (although I’m not sure why), but it’s inching closer. Rating: 9
