In comparison to Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan it
looked like a poor offering and I was not impressed enough to consider
attend a showing.Unreleased in the UK before it received its 8 Oscar nominations, I relented and
decided it was only fair that I should go and see what all the acclaim was
about.
I was greatly disappointed. I couldn't see why it had received so many Oscar
nominations and Hollywood obviously agreed; despite its many nominations it
later received not one Academy Award, and quite rightly so in my opinion.
Where Spileberg showed the brutality of war in Saving Private Ryan,
The Thin Red Line promised to show the chaos and inchorerence that
exists in the midst of battle.
A promise it failed to deliver.
This, near three hour long, film dragged on and on. Malicks's cult status and
this being only his third film ever during a 25 year period ( the others being
Badlands in 1973 and Days of Heaven in 1978 ) may have allowed
him to escape the cutting room floor scissors but cutting it certainly needed.
Indeed, the excessive inserts of shots of wild life, the most memorable
after-image of the film, perhaps because of the pointlessness, did nothing to
enhance the viewing experience.
The saving feature of the film was its dream-like quality, so powerful
that a friend I went with had to be woken up, two hours in, when the onset of
snoring was threatening to upset other members of the audience.
The film had a surreal quality to it, a captivating ambiant soundtrack and the
silence used to mask the deafening roar of battle was an interesting
device to use.
That Malick managed to get so many famous, and reputable, actors to appear in
his film, as no more than bit-parts in many cases, did nothing to take the
film to a level of excitement nor involvement.
It's somnambulistic approach overwhelmed and reduced the experience to a slow
crawling vehicle which didn't go anywhere on the whole. There were moments of
inspirational activity but nothing which really brought it out of its stupor.
Malick's previous films were not box office successes, nor did he gain any
awards for his efforts, but they were critically acclaimed by those who did go
and see them.
This time I don't think Malick is even going to receive the critcal acclaim; I
quite expect the next twenty year gap in his film making career to be enforced
rather than by choice.
