Art of the Cinema: The Thin Red Line

I’m going to start off by saying that director Terrence Malick's work in this movie was brilliant. The movie Thin Red Line proves that there doesn’t have to be a plot in order for the film to be excellent. He takes his time and lets the film unfold in a slow pace that forces viewers to appreciate both the scenery of the movie and the narrator’s deepest thoughts and feelings. The Thin Red Line definitely challenged its audiences, because not only do you have to be extra patient for 3 hours, but you also have to deal with the fact that it’s a war, and these horrifying things actually happened to our soldiers. Although, I am not a huge fan of war movies (Saving Private Ryan) …I thought this film was great, and Wilick did a fantastic job. It was beautiful and painful to watch at the same time, but isn’t that what we want? We don’t need a specific plot so we can “guess” or “predict” the outcome – which you can do in certain movies. During many scenes, I felt like I was there and that’s when you know the director did a good job. Not only do directors want viewers to relate to movies (which in this case, I obviously couldn’t), but they also want you to feel like you’re a part of it…like you’re in those scenes. This movie did that for me, and that is why it’s a great film because I’m almost positive that everyone else would agree with me once they’ve seen it.