The Thin Red Line Review
by Martin Gruber (lightwav AT ix DOT netcom DOT com)January 13th, 1999
Review of "A Thin Red Line" by Martin Gruber [email protected]
How about the first film I've wanted to walk out on this year. Terrence Malick's wanna-be epic tale of a World War II platoon is both boring and confusing, and this, his first film in the last 20 years since "Days of Heaven" is quite a disappointment.
The problem with the film is that its been done before and offers nothing new to the audience. We saw shell shocked veterans in the "Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now", we saw the gore in "Saving Private Ryan", and we saw the politics and controversy in "Platoon", so why did Malick try to shove it all into one. He smothers us with poetic philosophy, and drowns us with "would-be" meanings.
The only thing good about this film is the fact I honor that the actors could turn out great performances with such a mediocre script, and the fact that this film was beautifully shot under the direction of John Toll who also did "Braveheart" and "The Rainmaker". The ensemble cast would have made this movie fantastic if it hadn't been for Malick's poor idea, screenplay and direction. It wasn't just me, after leaving the theater people were shaking their heads and commenting on how slow and boring it was. Dragging on forever I give this movie a C-, only because of the great performances by all the actors who wasted their time with this film.
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