THE THIN RED LINE

When I think of films by Terence Malick, such as 'Badlands', or 'Days of Heaven', or 'The Tree of Life', adjectives such as 'dreamy', 'philosophical', or simply 'slow moving' come to mind.

So the idea of him directing a war film is intriguing to say the least.

Well of course this film is unlike any other war film I've ever seen and it is unmistakeably a Malick film.  For example, we start off with some dream-like sequences involving a US private (Witt) living with South Pacific natives.  

Thankfully we do then move on to some actual combat - an attempt by a US company to capture a strategically vital hill on Guadalcanal, where the Japanese are very well entrenched in their defensive positions.

Malick is happy to devote plenty of screentime showing us in great detail what is involved in gradually trying to make progress up the hill and eventually (after many casualties) capturing it.

I found this section of the film totally gripping and frankly just superb. 

Highlights include Woody Harrelson's character reaching for a grenade on his belt and accidentally pulling the pin, and Sean Penn's character Welsh heroically trying to rescue a dying comrade but in the end only being able to give him morphine.  

At one stage the Captain in charge refuses to carry out an order which he regards as a suicide mission, leading to his commanding officer (played superbly by Nick Nolte) having to take a more hands-on approach.

Once the hill is captured I found the rest of the film somewhat anti-climactic.  

My other problem with the film is that the main relationship among the soldiers is that between Witt and Welsh, but it wasn't one I could get a handle on and in the end it just left me feeling perplexed and frustrated.

There is a starry cast with (as is often the case) mixed results.  Most of the performances are very good but I didn't find either John Cusack or John Travolta convincing in military roles.

And if you are only tempted to watch the film because George Clooney is in it, be aware that he turns up for literally a minute at the very end of the film to do nothing much at all.