"The Thin Red Line" (1998) - Movie Review

I remember going “The Thin Red Line” in my native Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India. It was the times of “Saving Private Ryan” claiming heights in achievements. It was the age of innocence too, if I may say for me and my friends. I was living with my uncle and aunt. Their son was always been the left out since he was the youngest. Hence when I and my friends decided to go this movie, we tagged him along. He was going to high school. I am sure he felt a little up the stage since “seniors” like us took him to a war movie. And those days in my native, war movies means action and combat. And boy we were disappointed. I felt so bad for my cousin. Apart from various self inflicted editing by the theatre operators, the movie seem to be too morbid for us. So I decided to revisit it. I realized we were all too young to be patient and also to grasp the enormity of the film.

The movie shows the encounters of a US Army Unit in the Battle of Guadalcanal. The film though focuses on couple of characters. The movie spines around Private Witt (James Caviezel) with his strange powerful smile and sparkling eyes. He is in desertion when the movie starts. He is in the company of the natives of the Melanesian. He paddles lonely in his boats greeting the other native in another boat. He plays around with the kids. He is in a world which cannot be even thought upon in a situation of World War – II. He is spotted by his group and Sergeant Welsh (Sean Penn) tries to shook him off this spell. Witt is still as a rock. Then the characters unfurls with Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte). This is his final chance of getting recognized for all his years in the army. This is his one shot and a golden one. He is heavily surmounted with responsibility by his commanding officer, Brigadier General Quintard (John Travolta). The same falls on the field officer Captain Staros (Elias Koteas). They land on the island of Guedalcanal and they are determined to defeat the Japanese and claim the land. I took the strain of laying out the details because this is what the back drop is set. To further this review, this foundation is essential.

So did I reveal the whole movie? Not even close. The movie is not about the intricate heroic battles of all of them who want to prove something to the world and themselves. This is a film which is the analysis of the questions and conscience in the idea of this war. There are voice-overs all over the movie with very little idea of who is talking. Some of those are associated with the reflections on their memories which give some clues on who is talking. It does not matter to know whose voice is it. The whole narration contains questions. It is full of questions with answers untold. This is not a war movie. This is a movie on the people who went against their will and their conscience of all. They did what they never wanted to do. To destroy another human being. So does it mean that there is no patriotism or bravery in them? How can it be defined? As Captain Welsh says in one of the outbursts, it is “property”. Nothing more. Whatever might grow out of it is different but it all comes down to that. And every one is an entity in it. The questions popped up by those soldiers are every one’s. But what can be done in those situations? It becomes more of defending yourself rather than doing it for some unknown non living thing.

This movie directed by Terence Mallick and is an adaptation from the novel of the same name by James Jones. Malick returned to make a film after 20 years of absence. I have not seen his earlier movies but the style of this presentation is melancholic. The amount of time spent to detail out the nature surrounding the vicious war is an irony of the situation. The movie as such does not have running dialogues. It does not have the voice-overs always too. The movement of the characters is this movie. Their slightest emotions are captured. Their internal distress and the killing of their soul is the film. The motion of the film is gradual. It does not rush in to the screen and takes one frame at a time. It slowly gets the audience. It does not irritate but creates the uneasiness. It is humid and sultry, physically and emotionally. The sadness in this film is a kind which cannot be categorized. Its question marks every where.

The action of being in a war and what becomes of doing the right thing becomes a laugh. Captain Staros wants to do the right thing for his men. While apart from the recognition, Colonel Tall is more of the result than saving lives. In a way Colonel Tall is right person for a war. It is about result and not about being a nice man. But on the other hand, character is every where. Captain Staros even though in the face of killing enemies wanted to save his men at any cost. He knows that the sin of killing is already accumulated so much; it is the least any one can do to save his fellow men. In a same way are the actions and beliefs of Private Witt. He believes in the world of peace. His beliefs are in helping the people. Still he fulfills the responsibility of a soldier. And he does it with only one loss in both the sides.

A particular chain of sequence can be made heroic or sad by a score. The handling of it is delicate. It might turn out to be mockery too. There is the sequence wherein the jungle the Army attacks the Japanese Airfield. Those scenes in any other film would have been made a heroic clash and victorious US Army. Here the way it is shown with the most depressing music of Hans Zimmer. Those events remain the evidence of what violence has made us.

At the end of it, there seems to be an answer for all the questions of the soldiers. But it comes with the cost of lives. It still is costing us. Nothing is more painful than the execution of souls. The wars are the executions of those souls. It is the choice made by individuals to serve their country. But the world has become a place of existence wherein bravery is termed as physical strength than character. There is the thin red line in everything. Out here it is between co-existence and calamity.