The Thin Red Line (1998)

Directed by Terence Malick. Starring Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas, Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Dash Mihok, John Savage, Ben Chaplin, Woody Harrelson, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Matt Doran, John C. Reilly. [R]

Terence Malick’s return to filmmaking after two decades is a stunning, imaginative interpretation of James Jones’ same-named novel depicting the thoughts and actions of U.S. infantrymen during the Guadalcanal Campaign of World War II. Beautifully shot by John Toll and scored by Hans Zimmer, the epic masterfully illustrates the divide between victory-minded officers who give orders and those terrified troops and platoon leaders who are fodder for those orders, between those who lead by force and those who lead by philosophy, to say nothing of the dichotomy of nature’s beauty and war’s horror. To my mind, there’s never been another war film that looked quite like this before, as conceptualized or staged or photographed, above in the idyllic island breezes and below in the greenery and mud and carnage, shiny-domed varmints weaving over hills of tall, swaying grass. It’s not a film of conventional big, hard “war movie” themes or plot mechanisms or vivid character types; instead it seeks out the emotional weight and clear-eyed wisdom of a world in conflict, man against nature and man against his brothers. Only flaw of significance: several different characters waxing poetic in voiceover, which is not only a touch pretentious, but hardly represents the average Army grunt serving in the Pacific (had it just been Caviezel’s AWOL dreamer, on the other hand…). Sprawling ensemble cast also includes several familiar faces in walk-ons and background parts (Tim Blake Nelson, Thomas Jane, Jared Leto, Nick Stahl, Miranda Otto, etc.) and a couple of A-list cameos (John Travolta, George Clooney).

92/100