The Thin Red Line (1998)

Genre: Drama

Directed by: Terrence Malick

Cast: Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel

Running time: 170 minutes

This war drama, which is based on the novel by James Jones, is a semi-fictionalized account of the Battle of Mount Austen, during World War II, through the eyes of a group of Infantry soldiers sent to Guadalcanal as reinforcements to help seize territory from the Japanese.

The action in The Thin Red Line is more internal than external. This is more about inner thoughts than outward action. It is about finding inner truth in spite of the ugliness of war. The fight scenes are good, but so much time is spent on drab inner dialogue that I kind of lost focus after a while. And, at close to three hours, this movie is much, much too long.

The cast of this film is loaded with big names, but, in the end, all the characters kind of melt into one another and become unimportant.

Cinematography-wise, the images in The Thin Red Line are beautiful, but the story itself left me cold. While this has gotten many rave reviews over the years, I simply did not find it compelling.

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