A Disappointing Film
I had high hopes for this film with its inherently courageous material based upon the Guadalcanal campaign. However, the movie itself has a relentless boredom, much more like a Benneton commercial than a feature film. Malick, despite his Days of Heaven classic, lost touch with audiences and maybe even filmmaking over his 20 year absence. The art of conveying ideas and powerful visual metaphors within a story worked with David Lean. With Malick's work here, it's a whimsical, uncertain philosophical reference without meaning.

Several actors like Jim Cavizel were good to watch but overall the movie meandered so much that, when it ended, I thought that they had left off a reel of film.

Boring, Boring, Boring
As a 24-year military veteran, this movie was a complete miss and bore for me. I couldn't wait for this slow paced movie to end! A weak storyline and none existent plot further plagued this attempt to personalize war. The overacting of Nolte and barely noticeable Penn do nothing to overcome the poor directing. I still can't grasp why some people give Penn so much credit for this and other performances. His acting skills are simplistic and unbelievable, unless the part includes a drunk or drug addict.

My advice is to skip this movie and choose one of several better alternatives.

A Disappointing Film
I had high hopes for this film with its inherently courageous material based upon the Guadalcanal campaign. However, the movie itself has a relentless boredom, much more like a Benneton commercial than a feature film. Malick, despite his Days of Heaven classic, lost touch with audiences and maybe even filmmaking over his 20 year absence. The art of conveying ideas and powerful visual metaphors within a story worked with David Lean. With Malick's work here, it's a whimsical, uncertain philosophical reference without meaning.


Several actors like Jim Cavizel were good to watch but overall the movie meandered so much that, when it ended, I thought that they had left off a reel of film.

Somehow, it did not engage me.
Somehow, it did not engage me. It might be because it did not focus to a few people.

I prefer other WWII movies such as The longest day, Saving Private Ryan, U571, Midway.

Here's the Real Scoop on This Movie ...
I'm going to tell it like is.

First so you know where I'm coming from. I vote Republican, I like war movies and I can't stand celebrities preaching anti war propaganda.


It's true, "The Thin Red Line" is very different from "Saving Private Ryan". With SPR, you have a small group of guys that you follow from point A to point B. Real simple. Plus a lot of the film is focused on war images. I think that it could even be argued that some scenes in SPR do not represent our veterans very well, such as Matt Damon's character breaking down and crying during the middle of a battle scene. And it seemed like none of the characters got along in that movie.

I have a grand parent that fought in the same place "The Thin Red Line" is focused on. What's different about TTRL is that instead of being solely focused on battle scenes, it humanizes the troops. By that I mean, it puts you right there in the field with them, and makes you realize these aren't faceless soldiers, they're somebody's wife, husband, or dad. SPR did that a bit with Tom Hank's character but that's about it. TTRL let's you really "experience" what it was probably like to land on a foreign island that's rich in beauty but you know you're about to go into battle shortly.

Some people mentioned that this movie is convoluted and that it doesn't focus entirely on one person. That's true, this movie is the thinking person's Saving Private Ryan. If you want to vege out and see combat while the soldiers remain automons then maybe TTRL isn't for you. But if you can watch a movie like the GodFather and follow along and you want more than CGI and special effects then you'll probably love TTRL.

I gave this movie only 4 stars because after the main battle is over, it does amble on a bit but then picks right back up again.