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Re: Has anyone seen Thin Red Line Yet?

209.178.176.42

Posted by Robert on July 12, 1999 at 21:17:33

In Reply to: Re: Has anyone seen Thin Red Line Yet? posted by Estes on July 11, 1999 at 08:23:42:

MiKe,

I worked on "The Thin Red Line" (so keep my bias in mind!) and saw SPR in preparation for working on TRL. I came out of SPR an angry man. I thought the D-Day sequence was superb technically (and the sound created half of the impact, IMO), but I also felt I watched two films. The first film was an incredible recreation that enabled me to get a *small grasp* of real war, followed by a 2 ½ hour piece of "Hollywood" tripe. The second film used *every* cliche` in every war film ever made -- without deviation, and it came off as pale in comparison (the first part also had many cliche`s, but the D-Day sequence didn't hang on them as the second part did, but then, it couldn't). I found the use of manipulation in SPR overt, and insulting.

On the other hand, I was invited to a screening of TRL before the film was put in release, and for me, The Thin Red Line was everything that Saving Private Ryan was not. It's not perfect, but I feel it stands among the best war films made. To me TRL seemed more like a *very* expensive independent film than typical "Hollywood" faire (at several points I found myself thinking "how did Malick talk a major film studio into making a picture like this?" --but I already knew the answer: Bill Mechanic) other than all the cameos, which I felt were distracting (but there were only 25 *names* in the final film, another 25 guys such as Mickey Rourke had their scenes cut).

There were three war cliche's that Malick addressed, and each time he turned the cliche` on it's head, or at least on it's side (SPR did these same three cliche`s and left them intact). Also, in SPR you knew how long the actor would last on-screen by how well you knew his face (the Star Trek syndrome; Bones, Spock and Captain Buford beam down to face the Space Monster). In TRL it was established early in the battle scenes that *anyone* you saw on-screen could be killed, and not in heroic ways either, just like on a real battlefield. Whereas SPR threw you into the riot of battle for shock effect, in TRL the action doesn't appear so quickly, and Malick establishes the tension and anxiety one might experience before hand. The German soldier in SPR was a cartoon Nazi that had more in common with those found in Raiders of the Lost Ark than Schindler's List. TRL had no enemies with important speaking roles, yet they were better developed in their silence; they were more human, and didn't appear as actors in a movie, in my mind. Both films move back and forth through time, but for different reasons.

These are two films with very different goals.

I'll tell you the same thing I tell everyone; though I loved it, you may hate it. TRL isn't going to be everyone's cup of tea. The people I've talked to who've hated TRL didn't want to have to think during a movie, they just want to be "entertained," not required to... think. (still, there's no guarantee that you'll like it even if you enjoy films that challenge you mentally). I've heard people describe TRL as an "Art house flick", boring, confusing (can you say non-linear?), too long (15 minutes could be trimmed for greater impact, IMO), and that TRL was Saving Private Ryan on acid (my personal favorite).

To each his own.

Robert

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