The Thin Red Line (1998)
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor/Panavision 171m
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, James Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, John Travolta, John Savage
Synopsis:
American troops land on Guadalcanal and fight to secure an airbase from the Japanese.
Review:
A rarity among war films in that it floats freely in time while offering a multi-perspective narrative whose leaps in focus do not always make for fluid storytelling. On the plus side the boldness of its concept and beauty of the execution hold one mesmerised, and it is undoubtedly a film which bears repeated viewings. Compared unfavourably with Saving Private Ryan on its release, it is completely different in emphasising warfare as a sideshow in the natural scheme of things, the army arriving like Man in the Garden of Eden, then, happily, withdrawing. Malick's preoccupation with violence is as ever balanced with lyricism, or mysticism.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor/Panavision 171m
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, James Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, John Travolta, John Savage
Synopsis:
American troops land on Guadalcanal and fight to secure an airbase from the Japanese.
Review:
A rarity among war films in that it floats freely in time while offering a multi-perspective narrative whose leaps in focus do not always make for fluid storytelling. On the plus side the boldness of its concept and beauty of the execution hold one mesmerised, and it is undoubtedly a film which bears repeated viewings. Compared unfavourably with Saving Private Ryan on its release, it is completely different in emphasising warfare as a sideshow in the natural scheme of things, the army arriving like Man in the Garden of Eden, then, happily, withdrawing. Malick's preoccupation with violence is as ever balanced with lyricism, or mysticism.
Country: US
Technical: Technicolor/Panavision 171m
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, James Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, John Travolta, John Savage
Synopsis:
American troops land on Guadalcanal and fight to secure an airbase from the Japanese.
Review:
A rarity among war films in that it floats freely in time while offering a multi-perspective narrative whose leaps in focus do not always make for fluid storytelling. On the plus side the boldness of its concept and beauty of the execution hold one mesmerised, and it is undoubtedly a film which bears repeated viewings. Compared unfavourably with Saving Private Ryan on its release, it is completely different in emphasising warfare as a sideshow in the natural scheme of things, the army arriving like Man in the Garden of Eden, then, happily, withdrawing. Malick's preoccupation with violence is as ever balanced with lyricism, or mysticism.