The Thin Red Line (1998)
Average Rating: 7.2/10
Reviews Counted: 88
Fresh: 69 | Rotten: 19
This is a complex but powerful work with high intensity.
Average Rating: 7.5/10
Critic Reviews: 25
Fresh: 23 | Rotten: 2
This is a complex but powerful work with high intensity.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.4/5
User Ratings: 130,880
My Rating
Movie Info
The return of director Terrence Malick to feature filmmaking after a twenty year sabbatical, this World War II drama is an elegiac rumination on man's destruction of nature and himself, based on James Jones' semi-autobiographical novel, his follow-up to From Here to Eternity. James Caviezel stars as Private Witt, a deserter living in peace and harmony with the natives of a Pacific island paradise. Captured by the Navy, Witt is debriefed by a senior officer (Sean Penn) and returned to an active
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Sean Penn
First Sgt. Edward Welsh -
Adrien Brody
Cpl. Fife -
Jim Caviezel
Pvt. Witt -
Ben Chaplin
Pvt. Bell -
George Clooney
Capt. Charles Bosche -
John Cusack
Capt. John Gaff -
Woody Harrelson
Sgt. Keck -
Elias Koteas
Capt. James "Bugger" St... -
Jared Leto
Second Lt. Whyte -
Dash Mihok
Pfc. Doll -
Tim Blake Nelson
Pvt. Tills -
Nick Nolte
Lt. Col. Gordon Tall -
John C. Reilly
Sgt. Storm -
Larry Romano
Pvt. Mazzi -
John Savage
Sgt. McCron -
John Travolta
Brig. Gen. Quintard -
Arie Verveen
Pfc. Dale -
David Harrod
Cpl. Queen -
Thomas Jane
Pvt. Ash -
Polyn Leona
Melanesian Woman with c... -
Miranda Otto
Marty Bell -
Matt Doran
Private Coombs -
-
-
-
-
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (111) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (74) | Rotten (21) | DVD (38)
It's a genuinely epic ciné-poem that essentially sidesteps history, politics and conventional ethics to deal with war as an absolute, inevitable and eternal facet of existence.
Top CriticAt two hours and 45 minutes, The Thin Red Line gives ample evidence of suffering all manner of cuts, if not having been simply hacked into its final shape. But this violence only adds to the movie's brave, strange, eroded nobility.
A complex, highly talented work marked by intellectual and philosophical ambitions!
Lyrical, meditative and original, Malick's WWII film is one of the best war films ever made.
Though it is not only a great war film, perhaps not even primarily a great war film, it is assuredly a great war film.
...so gorgeous it feels as if it's being seen through heavenly eyes - at least until fresh hell rips across the screen.
Ultimately concerned less with specific tactical maneuvers or combat suffering than with the grand contradictions of life.
The Thin Red Line's hallucinatory blend of images defines the very essence of cinema.
Director Terrence Malick recommends that The Thin Red Line be played loud.
... one of the richest and lushest films ever to emerge from Hollywood.
The Thin Red Line would have been infinitely more successful without the frequent rest-stops full of mental malaise and philosophical pretense.
It makes you think and ask questions. Its characters contradict themselves, talking one way, acting another. And it ends abruptly, with many things unresolved. Like life.
Audience Reviews for The Thin Red Line
Super Reviewer
-
- Pvt. Bell: We... We together. One being. Flow together like water. Till I can't tell you from me. I drink you. Now... Now.
-
- Pvt. Bell: My dear wife. You get something twisted out of your insides by all this blood, filth and noise. I want to stay changeless for you. I want to come back to you the man I was before. How do we get to those other shores? To those blue hills? Love--where does it come from? Who lit this flame in us? No war can put it out, conquer it. I was a prisoner. You set me free.
-
- Lt. Col. Gordon Tall: All the sacrificed for me... Poured out like water on the ground. All I might have given for love's sake; too late. Dying. Slow as a tree.
-
- Pvt. Witt: I remember mother when she was dyin'; all shrunk up and grey. I asked her if she was afraid... she just shook her head. I was afraid to touch the death I seen in her. I couldn't find nothin' beautiful or upliftin' about her goin' back to God. I heard people talk about immortality... But I ain't seen it. I wondered how it'd be when I died. What it'd be like to know that this breath now was the last one you was ever gonna draw... I just hope that I can meet it the same way she did. With the same... calm. Cause that's where it's hidden -- the immortality I hadn't seen.
-
- Pvt. Witt: Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your sufferings will be less because you loved goodness? Truth?
-
- Pvt. Witt: One man looks at a dying bird and thinks there's nothing but unanswered pain, that death's got the final word, it's laughing at him. Another man sees that same bird, feels the glory, feels something smiling through it.
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for The Thin Red Line yet.
Latest News on The Thin Red Line
August 13, 2010:
Ben Affleck and Rachel Weisz Join Malick's LatestBen Affleck and Rachel Weisz have joined the cast of Terrence Malick's next film, described as "a...
What's Hot On RT
The Last Stand, Side Effects
Trailer for new Coen Bros movie
Fast & Furious cars gallery
Blockbusters ranked!
Featured on RT
- Comic Book Movies You Can Watch Online 0
- In Pictures: The Cars of Fast & Furious 0
- Digital Multiplex: Warm Bodies and Aftershock 6
- Discover the Best-Reviewed Films in Summer Movie Scorecard 2013 0
- RT on DVD & Blu-Ray: The Last Stand and Side Effects 17
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Star Trek Softer Than Expected at #1 86
- Weekly Ketchup: Will Smith to Star in Wild Bunch Remake? 39
Top Headlines
-
Which Film Franchise Has Been the Best for Female Characters?
6
-
Damon Lindelof Talks Tomorrowland
0
-
10 Movies About Really Fast Cars
1
-
Poltergeist Remake Synopsis Hints at Plot Differences
10
-
Kristen Wiig Says Welcome to Me
1
-
David Fincher's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea Gets Bumped
0
-
Sympathy for Mr. Vengeance Remake in the Works
0
Fresh Links
Featured
Star Trek Movies Ranked
HitFix offers their own take on the worst-to-best of the Enterprise crew's cinematic adventures.
Top 10 Star Trek Villains
Rolling Stone unveils the Enterprise's most irksome adversaries.
Celebrity Yearkbook Flashback
We'll bet you never realized how many stars were cheerleaders and high school athletes!
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Foreign Titles
- Der schmale Grat (DE)
- La Ligne rouge (FR)
It would be wrong to say that this is a film purely about war. It is more a film about human in conflict with himself. There are times when Malick's heavy use of monlogues feel pretentious and even a bit ridicilous, but when it come in staging a horrors of war he truly nails it. Some of the images from the fog filled jungle mixed with the Hans Zimmer's amazing score makes this one nearly a dreamlike experience. Something closer to a nightmare possibly.
It does have too many underwritten characters, too many sideplots and sometimes it all feels awfully unfocused when it comes to screenplay. Still this is Malick at his best. The Thin Red Line is his best work to date. Flawed it may be, but it holds your attention with it's hypnotic atmosphere.