The Thin Red Line

Terrence Malick's return to the director's chair after a 20 year absence was greeted by film cognoscenti, critics and the Motion Picture Academy as the cinematic equivalent of J. D. Salinger popping open his Smith-Corona once again--the emergence of an artistic hermit-genius. Those who considered his previous films (Badlands and Days of Heaven) Great American Movie-Making will probably be similarly dazzled by Malick's adaptation of James Jones' Guadalcanal campaign tale The Thin Red Line, but others will find it just another good-looking tone poem where attempts at deep thoughts get in the way of genuine drama. It's instantly clear that Malick isn't interested in the minute-to-minute physical details of life for World War II-era grunts provided in the novel. For long stretches in the film, he seems to forget that his characters even have bodies, giving over his screen time to voice-over narration in which his characters ponder the nature of evil, God, love and death. The incessant koan-like philosophizing becomes even more aggravating when every one of the men--from Kentucky-bred farm boy to law school graduate--thinks in the same college-sophomore-on-a-double-bong-hit, my-fingernail-could-be-a-whole-nother-universe terms, turning the internal monologues into an indistinct jumble of existential angst. Ironically, The Thin Red Line is at its best when it does get down and dirty, as in a kinetically effective assault on a Japanese hill fortification; there's more poetry and insight in these scenes than there is in an hour's worth of navel-gazing juxtapositions of war ("bad") and nature ("good"). Optional. (S. Renshaw)[DVD/Blu-ray Review—Sept. 28, 2010—Criterion, 171 min., R, DVD: $39.95 (2 discs), Blu-ray: $39.95—Making its third appearance on DVD, and first on Blu-ray, 1998's The Thin Red Line features a great transfer with Dolby Digital 5.1 sound on DVD and DTS-HD on Blu-ray. DVD/Blu-ray extras include audio commentary by cinematographer John Toll, production designer Jack Fisk, and producer Grant Hill, “The Actor's Perspective” featuring interviews with costars Kirk Acevedo, Jim Caviezel, Thomas Jane, Elias Koteas, Dash Mihok, and Sean Penn (34 min. total), interviews with editors Billy Weber, Leslie Jones, and Saar Klein (28 min.), an interview with Kaylie Jones, daughter of novelist James Jones (19 min.), a featurette with casting director Dianne Crittenden (18 min.), a featurette with composer Hans Zimmer (17 min.), classic newsreels (15 min.), outtakes (14 min.), Melanesian chants (7 min.), trailers, and a booklet featuring an essay by critic David Sterritt, and a 1963 article by James Jones. Bottom line: an extras-packed release of Terrence Malick's WWII epic, which was originally met with a mixed critical reception.]