Seems to me there are a number of SPR fanboys as well

This movie sucks hard....I'll will admit there is a love/hate issue with this movie. I would say 8 out of 10 do hate it, horrible blind buy, you should rent it first.

you're one of few people that outright hate it. i've found that most were bored by it and feel indifferently toward it.

Missed that the first time. A thinking man whose review of the movie is that "it sucked nuts." Classic.

It's a steal at $4.99. Put me in the minority of those who love TTRL. It is a masterpiece, IMO.

Horrible blind buy? The buying price is like 99 cents more than the renting price. I can't say how much Blockbuster charges, I haven't been there in months to rent, but it has to be pretty close.

BB is $4 something after tax (assuming no coupons) so yes it would be stupid to rent this one.

Enough people like it that one shouldn't have too much trouble trading it in the exchange forum.

Hmm....this is one of many blind buys that still sits unwatched on my shelves. maybe its time to see it so i can join in this debate.

Agreed.

This is a review I wrote some years ago in regards to Thin Red Line, while it is certainly no Resident Evil: Apocalypse.

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 exits the weapon it begins to move with turbulence. When the bullet hits it’s aimed surface the bullet begins to increase its trembling turbulence. The bullet spins around in your body and to not exit in a straight pattern, as it might have moved in a S-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 intestines 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 when it is up close and personal. 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, sleep, 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. (for me it is not the beer with the friends, but the first kiss etc.) You can say war becomes a psychological war against self. Thin Red Line depicts this with honesty, and how it really is in a war, in your mind. 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.

If your gauge of quality is how many people are familiar with and enjoyed something, I feel sorry for you. I thank God that I can truly appreciate things that Joe Six Pack can't deal with for more than 15 minutes without giving up on and flipping over to The Simple Life.

I can think of nothing more sickening than striving to be common.

I suggest reading Disclaimers before you start feeling anything for anybody that posts on an Internet Messageboard. Because IMO that's even sadder.

I suggest the dvd over the theater experience.
Watched it in the theater on opening week and hated it.

Gave it another try in 2002 on dvd and learned to appreciate it.
It's not my favorite, mind you. Nor can I give it high marks.

Malick is a great filmmaker if not a prolific one. All of his work - unlike many of the opinions in this forum - is worthy of consideration.

DVD Smurf, thank you for your insights. You've revealed an uncommon dimension of the film and renewed my appreciation for it.

The Thin Red Line was bad. It was very slow. I didn't identify with the main character. The action was weak. The star-studded cameos just left me waiting for the punchline to some inside joke....
However, I guess I'm an idiot because I enjoyed Saving Private Ryan, though I think the whole flashback from the present idea should have been dropped.

Hopefully you got Netflix so you don't have to pay $4 at blockbuster.

By the end of the movie, i cringed at every breakaway montage, letter, poetry, deep meaning, etc. I really disliked this movie. I saw it in the theater, and there was more than one person sawing logs. The only othey movie ive seen with such sleep inducing propeties was barry lyndon (which i actually like)

Some movies truly need the viewer to age to allow the viewer to appreciate the movie more. I know LOTS of people that couldn't stand TRL when it was released; I gave it a home viewing this year and decided it's not a bad movie, just not something I'll watch more than a few times in my life- to me it does seem at times seem reflective but at others slow; it's a very thoughtful war film and let's face it, the bulk of films about war are anything BUT that.

I have more affinity for anti-war movies post-WWII, because WWII was a different war in so many ways than any before or since; in essence I feel much more patriotic towards our cause in that war as opposed to, say, our current situation in Iraq- however, our troops/vets should be supported and respected, no matter what war they are representing or represented our country in.

I really liked the present day flashback aspect of the movie, because it allowed the viewer to get an idea of what had been gained in Ryan's life as a result of others' sacrifice.....the man went on to live a long full life, enriched by marrying, having children and grandchildren; things that the men who worked to keep him alive were never given the chance to experience and enjoy, generations of children never being born because of war. It also gave the viewer an insight that Ryan had not taken all of that for granted.

But what if Ryan had fallen into a life of alcohol, drugs, etc? In the end this aspect of Private Ryan doesn't bother with such questions. The end is simplistic, cheesy and overly typical Spielberg schmaltz.

I don't remember The Wizard Of Oz dealing with Dorothy falling into drugs or alcohol either

For nothing else, impress your friends and neighbors with the excellent DD track. Some serious subwoofer action in the first bombing at Guadalcanal.

Excellent film too. Definitely a cerebral film.

Every film that Terrence Malick has directed has literally put me to sleep. "Badlands," "Days of Heaven" and "Thin Red Line." Like director Wes Anderson, Malick, IMO, is very much overrated. Film students seem to completely taken aback at the supposed brilliance of these two directors. Their talent completely escapes me. And I very much like cerebral directors. I love the works of Ingmar Bergman, Woody Allen, Stanley Kubrick, Jean-Pierre Jeunet. But Malick (whose best film may be "Badlands," but even that was so slow and uninvolving) and Anderson (what on earth was so great about "Rushmore"?) are huge enigmas in my book.

A masterpiece imo. The story, performances and scenes were top notch. One of the few scenes I clearly remember in a movie - the part where the American soldiers creep up on the Japs.. you literally feel as if you were brushing up against the grass.