Thin Red Line--war has never and never will be a beautiful thing, and after what I have witnessed as a medic in a special unit I do not say anything good about war. War is bloody, messy, and nasty. The beginning of Saving Private Ryan is as close as I have seen it in physical presence of war on fiction film. Just imagine what a bullet that is so light that when it hits its aimed surface it begin to tremble in turbulence. It spins around in your body and to not exit in a straight pattern through the body since the bone, flesh and blood is much thicker than air. I have seen guys who have been shot in their backs and had their genitals partially torn away. A guy who was shot in the right arm and the bullet exiting out of the stomach together with particially torn intestins and there they lay and scream in agony, while I try to piece the poor man back together. You quickly learn that morphine becomes your best friend, since it relieves the painful screaming of the bullets victim. A screaming that his friends can hear that rapidly lowers morale among the soldiers in the unit, which also increases the chances of another man getting shot. Yes, this is what war is in real life. However, Thin Red Line portrays war in a very personal way, because war is slow. You always have to be silent so you do not give away your position and then you have to wait, walk, eat, take a crap, and then when you least expect it "BANG!". So when you are silent you have a lot of time to think, I mean really thinking about things in life that you value and miss the most. You can say war becomes a psychological war against yourself. Thin Red Line depicts this with honesty, and how it really is in a war. You are there with others, but you are lost in your thoughts almost all the time. This means a lot of anxiety for each and every soldier. I did not meet one single man who was not anxious, but we did not talk about it. If you are not anxious in a war situation, then I say that you have lost your humanity, and a Thin Red Line is a triumphant salutation for struggling humanity. In short, Thin Red Line is a good, honest and personal movie that I could relate to as an individual. While Saving Private Ryan and other war movies gives us the good things that war might bring out in us. I hope you enjoy it and I hope you never ever have to see a war close up in your own thoughts. Take care.

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"A word is dead when it is said, some say; I say it just begins to live that day."

Interesting review. I liked it. I've also never heard it explained that way. Thanks.




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THE SE7ENTH WARRIOR OF THE 'OTHER' FORUM...

An intelligent thoughtful post. How unusual!

I just hope it's honest... http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/tongue.gif

-Gonnosuke

Wow, DVD Smurf, that was some valuable input. As someone who's never seen war, I'd always thought that the reality was closest to "Pvt. Ryan" but that "Thin Red Line" was more of an artistic than realistic portrayal of war (along the lines of "Apocalypse Now."

It never occurred to me that the pace of war would allow for the long, internal monologues that "Line" had in abundance. (Indeed, a few who criticized the movie argued that this was unrealistic.) Dang, maybe I'll give the movie another look. (Which I loved, by the way.)

Have you read the book? I've heard it's incredible.


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PLEASE NOTE: Any similarities between the opinions written above and the opinions of anyone living or dead are purely coincidental.

Great review. I love the movie--I'll probably watch it again in the next few days.

Thanks for the review. I admire this movie a great deal. To me though, it was so subjective that it at times undermined the realities of the war.

Excellent point of view. This was also my feeling about TTRL, a much better/accurate movie in my opinion than SPR, but since, thankfully, I didn't live any war experience, I wasn't quite able to put my feelings about the movie(s) in the right words and light, to make others look at TTRL as an extremely realistic and powerful movie, rather than an artsy exercise.

Excellent post, DVD Smurf.

Anyone who thinks there is no poetry in war can go to their local library and read many books written in the midst of it--from ancient times to the modern day.

Since it is impossible to convey the horror of war totally without living through it, why are alternate points of view not tolerated about the experience? Is Spielberg really any more qualified to make a film about war than Malick, or any other director?

I think the review that I read all over the DVD websites made my me wanna buy it! The nice thing about this movie is it is available in Singapore!!! Unlike Saving Private Ryan, the movie concept is better and not banned. Saving Private Ryan is banned by the Censorship Board of Singapore (what a name) http://talk.dvdtalk.com/ubb/mad.gif Will this movie compensate Saving Private Ryan?