This is the best film of 1998/9, in line with Elizabeth. Shakespeare in Love beat two brilliant films - TTRL and Elizabeth - to get that oscar, and don't get me started on Gwyneth's award. I think TTRL was shunned unmercifully at the 1999 Oscars. In this way it is the most thought-provoking war film I've ever seen and one of the best films of all time in my book. While the characters share their thoughts, deeply poetic as they are, the meaning is not thrown in your face and neither is the answer to the questions raised.
Though the title is not really explained in the film, I believe it is implied, and could have many meanings - the line between sanity and insanity, morality and immorality, love and hate, companionship and loneliness, nature and man, war and peace. It does not deviate from this to make simple contrasts and offer easy binary oppositions. The Thin Red Line is about war, the people involved and the destruction it creates for the mind, the soul and for nature. It seemed to be more about America at some points than about war. Ryan sat in the safe territory of Good vs Evil with a bit of Futility of War and a lot of American Patriotism. Ryan was an excellent film, but to offer a comparison, The Thin Red LIne treads where Ryan didn't dare. This film was released a few months after Saving Private Ryan and unfortunately did not experience the same attention that the latter film did. It sticks close with the characters, as we hear the thoughts, their hopes, their fears, leading to a moving experience. It's not an Us-and-Them war story about the glory of the USA defeating the evil Japs. In my opinion it is the greatest war film since Apocalypse now, which I believe bears more flaws than this. What follows is not a mindless battle-after-battle onslaught of pyrotechnics, smoke, dust and blood, but a thought-provoking, visually and verbally poetic analysis of war and humanity. The amazing opening sequence, sets up a tranquility as the character Witt, finds peace on a secluded island among the natives, a peace which is shattered by the war. It's about love, faith in yourself and others, friendship, humanity, morality and also works as a startling indictment of man's conflict with nature. This story about the Guadalcanal campaign during WW2, based on the James Jones novel, weaves the lives of many characters together seemlessly, creating a philosophical/emotional experience of war. Not only is the amazing ensemble cast give truly beautiful, effective performances, but the direction and cinematography combines to create a magnificent visual and mental feast. This is one of the most beautifully crafted and haunting films that I have ever seen.
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