February 9, 2010

Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998)

Rating: 6.5/10

Malick lines up quite the roster for this Guadalcanal diary: Nick Nolte, Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, John Travolta, George Clooney, Woody Harrelson and many others. The star power bogs this film down a bit. [Compared to a film like Herzog's "Rescue Dawn" which has similar pacing and less star power (no names other than Christian Bale and this was before the Batman hype).] So we've got a batch of soldiers trying to get up a very grassy hill. Fighting against an unseen enemy much of the time. The real enemy being their own mental and emotional demons which incite a lack of drive and a struggle to push onward. The script is wonderful...very Malick. And the sweeping low angle shots help you to feel like you're down in the dirt with these men.

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