Watch, Watched, Watching: The Thin Red Line has been crossed

[Veltigar]

Let's carry on!

_______________________

Alright, The Thin Red Line is brilliant. As expected really. This is definitely one of the best warmovies ever made. I loved the way voice-over was used in this film. I'm not a fan of movies with voice-over, but here it absolutely worked. It was voice-over done right. The acting was incredibly strong, which is remarkable when you look at the limited screentime most people get. I loved the battle scenes, the storming of the Japanese camp is definitely one of the greatest battle sequences ever put to film.

The film also looked beautiful. Overall, even more beautiful than Days of Heaven I think (although those last 20 minutes od DoH are probably even more stunning than TTRL). Mallick did a great job showing how small we are when compared to nature. I adored the ending, it was heartbreaking really and I think it really proofs that this is an anti-warfilm if ever there was one. I also feel like he did a good job with the Japanese. They aren't just vile enemies, they are people to, just like the American soldiers

When Private Witt saw the face of that Japanese soldier burried under the mud and there was the voice-over

'Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth?' or really in the entire storming of the camp you how the Japanese all had different attitudes. Some fought, others surrendered, others meditated, some wept for their fallen comerades, etc. It made them really human. Also when you look up the translations of the Japanese dialogue (great stylistic choice not to use subtitles for the Japanese imo), how the Japanese NCO wanted Witt to surrender. It makes Witt's death even more tragic

Strange to think of the fact that this came out in the same year as Saving Private Ryan. They are both set in WWII and that's basically the only thing they have in common. TTRL is the vastly superior film, although SVP still gets props for that great opening. TTRL is just much more realistic (strange, since it such a poetic film). The way common grunts experience the fighting, the way combat turns young men into beasts, the awfully disappointing performance of commanding officers

Staros bailing on them and leaving them in the hands of a clearly inept pushover young lieutenant. And an even better example, Colonel Tall who seeks to drown his own insecurities in the blood of his men

. I think TTRL is one of those rare anti-war war films. A stark difference with SVP which is really just one big celebration of the myth of the just war and the golden generation (except for the landing sequence, which shows the reality of war).

EDIT: If I had to offer one line of criticism, it would be towards the only female character in the film. Like, I get that that situation probably happened during WWII (and basically every other war ever), but I don't know if it was really necessary to put it in the movie.

[JonArryn]

Let's carry on!

_______________________

Alright, The Thin Red Line is brilliant. As expected really. This is definitely one of the best warmovies ever made. I loved the way voice-over was used in this film. I'm not a fan of movies with voice-over, but here it absolutely worked. It was voice-over done right. The acting was incredibly strong, which is remarkable when you look at the limited screentime most people get. I loved the battle scenes, the storming of the Japanese camp is definitely one of the greatest battle sequences ever put to film.

The film also looked beautiful. Overall, even more beautiful than Days of Heaven I think (although those last 20 minutes od DoH are probably even more stunning than TTRL). Mallick did a great job showing how small we are when compared to nature. I adored the ending, it was heartbreaking really and I think it really proofs that this is an anti-warfilm if ever there was one. I also feel like he did a good job with the Japanese. They aren't just vile enemies, they are people to, just like the American soldiers

When Private Witt saw the face of that Japanese soldier burried under the mud and there was the voice-over 'Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth?' or really in the entire storming of the camp you how the Japanese all had different attitudes. Some fought, others surrendered, others meditated, some wept for their fallen comerades, etc. It made them really human. Also when you look up the translations of the Japanese dialogue (great stylistic choice not to use subtitles for the Japanese imo), how the Japanese NCO wanted Witt to surrender. It makes Witt's death even more tragic

Strange to think of the fact that this came out in the same year as Saving Private Ryan. They are both set in WWII and that's basically the only thing they have in common. TTRL is the vastly superior film, although SVP still gets props for that great opening. TTRL is just much more realistic (strange, since it such a poetic film). The way common grunts experience the fighting, the way combat turns young men into beasts, the awfully disappointing performance of commanding officers

Staros bailing on them and leaving them in the hands of a clearly inept pushover young lieutenant. And an even better example, Colonel Tall who seeks to drown his own insecurities in the blood of his men

. I think TTRL is one of those rare anti-war war films. A stark difference with SVP which is really just one big celebration of the myth of the just war and the golden generation (except for the landing sequence, which shows the reality of war).

EDIT: If I had to offer one line of criticism, it would be towards the only female character in the film. Like, I get that that situation probably happened during WWII (and basically every other war ever), but I don't know if it was really necessary to put it in the movie.

Agree with you. It's a great movie. It's been a while since I saw it but I should rewatch it soon. And I know it's probably a more realistic work of fiction than Saving Private Ryan, but if I compare these two movies one thing I gotta give SPR is that I think it was better at making you connect and care for the characters. As to what is the best film in my opinion, that's probably The Thin Red Line though. It has better dialogue, better shots, and is a lot deeper, it gives you more to think about.

I always remember the beginning conversation between Witt and his CO, when Witt has abandoned his post to live with the tribe.

The CO say: "In this world a man by himself is nothing. And there is no world but this one."

And Witt goes: "I've seen another world. Sometimes I think it's just my imagination."

That's two great contrasting lines of these two characters with very different outlooks on life.

And that's just an example, there is brilliant dialogue throughout.

But to say that anti-war movies are rare I think is a bit wrong. Many of the most famous war movies are also anti-war movies. Apocalypse Now is probably even more anti-war then TTRL. Full Metal Jacket and Letters From Iwo Jima are also anti-war movies.

On another note, I just saw The Interview. It was mediocre, and while it opened with a good first 20 minutes I think it got a bit bland the longer it went on. I think that it got overly silly and wasn't really offering anything when they reached North Korea. Although it's a good thing that they released the movie, just a shame that the people of North Korea will probably never get to view it.

[Howdyphillip]

Let's carry on!

_______________________

Alright, The Thin Red Line is brilliant. As expected really. This is definitely one of the best warmovies ever made. I loved the way voice-over was used in this film. I'm not a fan of movies with voice-over, but here it absolutely worked. It was voice-over done right. The acting was incredibly strong, which is remarkable when you look at the limited screentime most people get. I loved the battle scenes, the storming of the Japanese camp is definitely one of the greatest battle sequences ever put to film.

The film also looked beautiful. Overall, even more beautiful than Days of Heaven I think (although those last 20 minutes od DoH are probably even more stunning than TTRL). Mallick did a great job showing how small we are when compared to nature. I adored the ending, it was heartbreaking really and I think it really proofs that this is an anti-warfilm if ever there was one. I also feel like he did a good job with the Japanese. They aren't just vile enemies, they are people to, just like the American soldiers

When Private Witt saw the face of that Japanese soldier burried under the mud and there was the voice-over 'Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth?' or really in the entire storming of the camp you how the Japanese all had different attitudes. Some fought, others surrendered, others meditated, some wept for their fallen comerades, etc. It made them really human. Also when you look up the translations of the Japanese dialogue (great stylistic choice not to use subtitles for the Japanese imo), how the Japanese NCO wanted Witt to surrender. It makes Witt's death even more tragic

Strange to think of the fact that this came out in the same year as Saving Private Ryan. They are both set in WWII and that's basically the only thing they have in common. TTRL is the vastly superior film, although SVP still gets props for that great opening. TTRL is just much more realistic (strange, since it such a poetic film). The way common grunts experience the fighting, the way combat turns young men into beasts, the awfully disappointing performance of commanding officers

Staros bailing on them and leaving them in the hands of a clearly inept pushover young lieutenant. And an even better example, Colonel Tall who seeks to drown his own insecurities in the blood of his men

. I think TTRL is one of those rare anti-war war films. A stark difference with SVP which is really just one big celebration of the myth of the just war and the golden generation (except for the landing sequence, which shows the reality of war).

EDIT: If I had to offer one line of criticism, it would be towards the only female character in the film. Like, I get that that situation probably happened during WWII (and basically every other war ever), but I don't know if it was really necessary to put it in the movie.

Terence Malik is a pretentious hack with the bloated ego of everything that is wrong with the artistic film movement. I found The Thin Red Line to be barely watchable. When it was not the heavy handed dose of politics being shoved down our throats when actors were finally given lines to speak, it was the shot selection that was far more concerned with how "cool" it could be than to tell an actual story.

The movie was a long, boring, and so full of itself that it was painful to watch. I personally thought that it couldn't get worse than this, but then Malik came out with Tree of Life. I can go on for days about how horrible that is.

[drawkcabi]

Yeah, Thin Red Line is up there with Alexander and Gladiator as movies that I felt tortured me when I watched them in the theaters. Hate that movie.

[Jack Bauer 24]

Terence Malik is a pretentious hack with the bloated ego of everything that is wrong with the artistic film movement. I found The Thin Red Line to be barely watchable. When it was not the heavy handed dose of politics being shoved down our throats when actors were finally given lines to speak, it was the shot selection that was far more concerned with how "cool" it could be than to tell an actual story.

The movie was a long, boring, and so full of itself that it was painful to watch. I personally thought that it couldn't get worse than this, but then Malik came out with Tree of Life. I can go on for days about how horrible that is.

It's that bad?

[Howdyphillip]

It's that bad?

It is horrible... and that is some of the good things I have to say about it.

[Nictarion]

Add me to the camp that found The Thin Red Line pretty boring. It looks great, like all Malick films, but that's about it. I much prefer SPR. Hanks performance and the opening alone make it a better film imo.

To be fair though, I've only seen it once, and that was years ago. Might give it another shot some day, but I'm certainly in no hurry to do so.

[Shryke]

The Thin Red Line is beautiful to watch and has some great sequences but ultimately amounts to nothing all that interesting as a whole product. The voice overs just made me think of every skewering of pretentious film making done by a comedy, but played straight.

I've never particularly liked any of the Malick films I've seen. I think I'm gonna give The New World a try and if it don't work for me just write the guy off.

[Veltigar]

My God, I chose the title for this thread well it seems. I am surrounded by a bunch of Philistines :P (kidding, love you all). I can certainly agree with most of you that TTRL isn't an easy film to love. I watched it myself years ago and I never rewatched it until yesterday. Proof enough that I didn't like it when I was younger, because I used to chronically rewatch the movies that I loved.

Agree with you. It's a great movie. It's been a while since I saw it but I should rewatch it soon. And I know it's probably a more realistic work of fiction than Saving Private Ryan, but if I compare these two movies one thing I gotta give SPR is that I think it was better at making you connect and care for the characters. As to what is the best film in my opinion, that's probably The Thin Red Line though. It has better dialogue, better shots, and is a lot deeper, it gives you more to think about.

SPR makes it a lot easier to like its characters than TTRL. It focusses a lot more on a small group. Hanks and his crew are a bunch of boyscouts really, with funny accents and a cute backstory to help you identify them. It's all so nice and clean and save, you know what I mean.

TTRL is a lot harder to follow, you have to stay focussed, but it rewards you a lot more imo. The characters act a lot more realistic. No lofty ideals, war just dehumanizes them. It's indeed a far more realistic take on combat. I think SPR only shows the same intellectual honesty in the brilliant opening sequence. After the landing, it just devolves to give you Spielberg's sacharine take on the WWII mythos.

But to say that anti-war movies are rare I think is a bit wrong. Many of the most famous war movies are also anti-war movies. Apocalypse Now is probably even more anti-war then TTRL. Full Metal Jacket and Letters From Iwo Jima are also anti-war movies.

I think you're forgetting that for every anti-warfilm there are dozens of warmovies like Fury, SVP, Kelly's heroes, Where Eagles Dare, etc. that are just glorified action adventures. Not to say that you can't make good films in that vain (I'm quite fond of a movie like Von Ryan's Express for instance), but the vast majority of warmovies just aren't really anti-war. Even when they try to be. There is even a famous quote by François Truffaud (allegedly anyway) that states that “There is no such thing as an anti-war film.”

I disagree of course, but it is true that anti-warfilms are the exception to the rule. Even a movie like for instance FMJ doesn't completely succeed as an anti-warfilm. It's a great film no doubt, but Sergeant R. Lee Ermey has become somewhat of a folk hero no? Even though IIRC he wasn't exactly painted in a flattering light. It's been years since I have seen it, but that's something that stuck with me (moving it up on my rewatch list :) )

In case of TTRL, I think it succeeds as an anti-warmovie almost accidentally. Like, the war was just part of the setting and Mallick wanted to tell a story about the power of nature. How man corrupts and hurts it and how it endures and all that jazz. It just so happened that the war was part of the setting so to speak.

I always remember the beginning conversation between Witt and his CO, when Witt has abandoned his post to live with the tribe.

The CO say: "In this world a man by himself is nothing. And there is no world but this one."

And Witt goes: "I've seen another world. Sometimes I think it's just my imagination."

That's two great contrasting lines of these two characters with very different outlooks on life.

I think in the end Sean Penn's character had a change of heart. I feel like he got part of what Witt was saying, just to late :(

Terence Malik is a pretentious hack with the bloated ego of everything that is wrong with the artistic film movement. I found The Thin Red Line to be barely watchable. When it was not the heavy handed dose of politics being shoved down our throats when actors were finally given lines to speak, it was the shot selection that was far more concerned with how "cool" it could be than to tell an actual story.

The movie was a long, boring, and so full of itself that it was painful to watch. I personally thought that it couldn't get worse than this, but then Malik came out with Tree of Life. I can go on for days about how horrible that is.

I take it you won't be standing in line to see Knight of Cups on opening night? :P

I'm curious though, what heavy handed dose of politics are you talking about specifically? Mallick places a lot of emphasis on nature and man's (negative) impact on it. And he doesn't seem to have much love for the military. That's about all I can think of though. It's not nearly as political as SPR, with all the pandering towards the 'just war' mythos and all that.

Yeah, Thin Red Line is up there with Alexander and Gladiator as movies that I felt tortured me when I watched them in the theaters. Hate that movie.

Alexander was bad. TTRL is hard to like, but what are your gripes with Gladiator? It's certainly a flawed movie, but still, it's Gladiator.

To be fair though, I've only seen it once, and that was years ago. Might give it another shot some day, but I'm certainly in no hurry to do so.

You should rewatch it soon, now that we are all having a blast talking about it :P

The Thin Red Line is beautiful to watch and has some great sequences but ultimately amounts to nothing all that interesting as a whole product. The voice overs just made me think of every skewering of pretentious film making done by a comedy, but played straight.

As someone who hates voice-overs in general, I think Mallick is one of the few directors who makes good use of them. I particularly liked his approach in TTRL, where we got to know the deeper, inner thoughts of different soldiers. The language wasn't just poetic and beautiful, the voice-over added an extra dimension to the story. Usually, voice-over sucks because they explain things that you can easily see for yourself. In the TTRL, Mallick goes beyond that. The voice-over tells us something about these people that we couldn't have known otherwise.

[polishgenius]

I need to do a TTRL rewatch- it was the first Malick film I ever saw and I loved it, but I haven't seen it since. However, I definitely rate it above SPR, which despite the brutality of the warfare I just found tacky and saccharine in other aspects.

Although both are blown away by Band of Brothers, quite frankly.

As someone who hates voice-overs in general, I think Mallick is one of the few directors who makes good use of them. I particularly liked his approach in TTRL, where we got to know the deeper, inner thoughts of different soldiers. The language wasn't just poetic and beautiful, the voice-over added an extra dimension to the story. Usually, voice-over sucks because they explain things that you can easily see for yourself. In the TTRL, Mallick goes beyond that. The voice-over tells us something about these people that we couldn't have known otherwise.

My favourite use of Malick's voiceovers is in Badlands, where there's a contrast between what she's saying and what's actually happening that adds a great deal to both characters and is in places highly unsettling.

[Veltigar]

My favourite use of Malick's voiceovers is in Badlands, where there's a contrast between what she's saying and what's actually happening that adds a great deal to both characters and is in places highly unsettling.

He uses voice-over to great effect there indeed

I remember being baffled by her reaction to the murder of her father. I just couldn't wrap my head around it at first.

[Derfel Cadarn]

Yeah, Thin Red Line is up there with Alexander and Gladiator as movies that I felt tortured me when I watched them in the theaters. Hate that movie.

Were you not entertained?

[RedEyedGhost]

The Thin Red Line is beautiful to watch and has some great sequences but ultimately amounts to nothing all that interesting as a whole product. The voice overs just made me think of every skewering of pretentious film making done by a comedy, but played straight.

I've never particularly liked any of the Malick films I've seen. I think I'm gonna give The New World a try and if it don't work for me just write the guy off.

I think The New World was the only Malick film I've ever enjoyed. I didn't love, but I didn't fall asleep like I do work most of his work. I am done with the guy.

Were you not entertained?

Slow clap.

[Lady Olenna]

I'm not a big Malick fan.

But I love John Hughes, if that says anything.

I see that Helix season two is coming up. I enjoyed the first season.

[Shryke]

As someone who hates voice-overs in general, I think Mallick is one of the few directors who makes good use of them. I particularly liked his approach in TTRL, where we got to know the deeper, inner thoughts of different soldiers. The language wasn't just poetic and beautiful, the voice-over added an extra dimension to the story. Usually, voice-over sucks because they explain things that you can easily see for yourself. In the TTRL, Mallick goes beyond that. The voice-over tells us something about these people that we couldn't have known otherwise.

I always thought Ebert captured alot of the issues of TTRL in his review:

The actors in "The Thin Red Line" are making one movie, and the director is making another. This leads to an almost hallucinatory sense of displacement, as the actors struggle for realism, and the movie's point of view hovers above them like a high school kid all filled with big questions. My guess is that any veteran of the actual battle of Guadalcanal would describe this movie with an eight-letter word much beloved in the Army.

The movie's schizophrenia keeps it from greatness (this film has no firm idea of what it is about), but doesn't make it bad. It is, in fact, sort of fascinating: a film in the act of becoming, a field trial, an experiment in which a dreamy poet meditates on stark reality. It's like horror seen through the detachment of drugs or dementia. The soundtrack allows us to hear the thoughts of the characters, but there is no conviction that these characters would have these thoughts. They all seem to be musing in the same voice, the voice of a man who is older, more educated, more poetic and less worldly than any of these characters seem likely to be: the voice of the director.

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-thin-red-line-1999

It's some beautiful but random scenes overlaid with banal musings.

[Nictarion]

Although both are blown away by Band of Brothers, quite frankly.

This is something I hope we all can agree on.

[Martini Sigil]

We are a few episodes into Strike Back... pure adrenaline fun so far.... it seems to be exactly what its supposes to be... and not a bad budget.

We're also anxiously awaiting January.... a lot of our shows come back.... including Banshee, and Justified

[Nictarion]

We are a few episodes into Strike Back... pure adrenaline fun so far.... it seems to be exactly what its supposes to be... and not a bad budget.

We're also anxiously awaiting January.... a lot of our shows come back.... including Banshee, and Justified

Love Banshee. Next week!

[Jack Bauer 24]

This is something I hope we all can agree on.

Haven't seen it. How is it?

[Nictarion]

Haven't seen it. How is it?

Excellent.