1998’s The Thin Red
Line, directed by Terrence Malick.
Starring Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, John Cusack, Elisa Koteas,
John C. Reilly, Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas, Adrian Brody, Ben Chaplin, John
Travolta, Woody Harrelson, and George Clooney.
Nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Best
Director (Terrence Malick),
Best Adapted Screenplay (Terrence Malick), Best
Cinematography (John Toll), Best Sound (Andy Nelson, Anna Behlmer, and Paul
'Salty' Brincat) Best Film Editing (Billy Weber, Leslie Jones, and Saar Klein),
and Best Original Score (Hans Zimmer).
What is it about?
Set in Guadalcanal during WWII, a group of soldiers fight
against the Japanese to secure the island, and… against themselves. Rebel Private
Witt (Jim Caviezel) is reintegrated into his outfit after AWOL’ing, and as the
company advances, faces the horrors of war. Whatever from the perspective of
grizzled Colonel Gordon Toll (Nick Nolte), noble Captain James “Bugger” Staros
(Elias Koteas), or numbed Sgt. Maynard Storm (John C. Reilly), will
our heroes of the last “great war” be able to eke out victory for the allies?
Why is it worth seeing?
At the time of its release, The Thin Red Line
featured a great deal of expectation after its director, Terrence Malick, had
disappeared from the public eye after stunning the world with his 1970’s features,
Badlands and Days of Heaven. 20 years later, a murderer’s row of actors came
forward once it was announced that Malick had started a new film, about
American soldiers fighting against the Japanese. It’s not hard to see why- even
with just 2 movies to his name, Malick’s poetic vision showed a way of transcending
mere narrative and plot.
I have to admit- I didn’t care for TRL when I originally saw it. Saving Private Ryan, the other epic WWII film released that year,
got all the box office and Oscar swag. Its story about a mission being a man
was so much more straight forwards, and featured memorably vibrant characters
amidst tragic sacrifice. Conversely, TRL
was meditative in some parts, requiring patience at times. It featured a number
of characters who are never identified, some of whom show up and then disappear
for stretches, amidst flashbacks for some of these characters, in the middle of
firefights. Standard exposition was replaced instead by artful narration by
multiple characters. There is at least equal time spent on composing scenes of
light shining through leaves and wind soughing through grass, as there were of men
running into exploding detritus. It took me another viewing to realize that
Malick was going for something so much more, than merely the thrilling
awfulness of war.
Just to be clear, TRL
has its share of pulse pounding moments. Malick knows how to use his dolly to
give a sense of movement, where to place actors, how to pound the ground with
shrapnel and bodies needing to be buried. But he’s after more- even more than
the admirable theme of war being mankind’s most natural tragic state of being. His
spiritual vision of what awaits us, in life or otherwise, wrestles comfortably with
the fury and the calm.
I haven’t seen every single war movie out there, but I’m willing to wager TRL is the most beautiful one ever made.
Most war movies are either kinetic, full of carnage, or anti climatic, with a lack of action- but most carry the
standard message of, “War is Hell”. TRL
is both of these things, but suggests the possibility that there is a beauty
not only surrounding us, but embedded in us, even at our most destructive. As a
character muses about what it is that is keeping us from touching the glory, the
magic of Malick isn’t that he thinks heaven is a place on earth- it’s that we
believe him.
No comments:
Post a Comment