Light On Dark Water

The Thin Red Line

After having it strongly recommended to me several times by several different people, I finally devoted an evening to watching this movie. And I mean an evening: it's just under three hours long.

I think a person of decent taste and intelligence could find it either sublime and profound, or pompous and pretentious. I'm in the former category. It's a Terrence Malick film, and on the basis of the two works of his that I've seen, the other being Tree of Life, I think you either give yourself over to his vision, in which case you'll be of the sublime-and-profound persuasion, or you don't, in which case you might be tempted to mock.

 

Update: Re-reading this, I think it sounds less enthusiastic than I intended for it to. I only meant to add that I can imagine some fair criticisms of the movie–I myself did like it, quite a lot, and recommend it, with the warning that there are some pretty intense and somewhat gory battle scenes.

Maclin Horton

29 responses to “The Thin Red Line”

  1. Grumpy

    I’d like to see it.

    Reply
  2. Janet

    I see I can watch this on Amazon for $2.99, or I can get an anime video by the same name for free.
    I changed my Netflix DVD account to 1 DVD at a time. I just found out that there is a 2 per month limit. This does not make me happy, especially since I had to send the last one I had back without watching it since it was so creepy.
    AMDG

    Reply
  3. Mac

    Hmm, we just changed ours to 1 DVD, too, and I didn’t know about that limit. Annoying but probably ok with me, as we have been watching more episodic things via streaming than full-length movies. What was the one you sent back?

    Reply
  4. Janet

    The Woman in Black. It stars Daniel Radcliffe and I have no memory of putting it on my queue. It starts off with three little Victorian girls having a lovely tea party with their dolls. Suddenly they all look up in the direction of something invisible, watch it move across, the room, and then rise in a zombie-like state and cross the room (stepping on and crushing their dolls and tea set) to the windows, which they open and jump to their deaths, and then we hear their mother screaming. Bad as this is, it was accompanied a horrible creepy feeling, and I decided not to watch the rest. I mean, I’ve watched EVERY episode of X-Files and nothing in them creeped me out like this.
    AMDG

    Reply
  5. Mac

    In addition to being disappointed when an actor one likes does or says something unpleasant in the real world, it’s also disappointing when they participate in some unsavory project. Radcliffe has quite a history of this now, as I’m sure you know. I don’t think I’d ever heard of this one. It sounds quite horrible.

    Reply
  6. Paul

    I was curious about The Woman in Black – the trailer put me in mind of M. R. James, and the title vaguely range a bell – but a friend of mine was scathing about how it was a rubbish adaptation of a good book, so in the end I didn’t bother.

    Reply
  7. Craig

    I’ve seen The Thin Red Line twice now, and I really admire it. Those sequences in which the army tries to scale the grassy hill while under fire are among the most harrowing — and still, in the way they are shot, very beautiful — war sequences I’ve ever seen on film.
    I also love the way George Clooney appears right at the end and has his lines masked by a voiceover. Apparently this was Malick’s cheeky way of “honouring” a contractual obligation the studio had imposed on him.
    But it’s a great film.
    To the Wonder opened here this week, but I don’t know if I’ll have a chance to see it!

    Reply
  8. Mac

    I think you were one of the people whose recommendation I’d heard. I know Rob G was another (well, I think I know–my memory seems to get ever more untrustworthy). Also one of my children.
    I’m not sure, and I can’t check now because I’ve sent the dvd back, but I’m almost sure I was hearing Clooney’s voice in that bit. I did think it was a bit strange that he made only that one small and inconsequential appearance. Maybe there are multiple versions out there?

    Reply
  9. Craig

    You do hear Clooney a little as he begins, and you hear him quietly in the background as the voiceover proceeds, but the voiceover itself is another character speaking. (I forget which.)
    I’m pretty sure.

    Reply
  10. Mac

    I guess I wasn’t paying real close attention there.
    Has anybody read the James Jones novel on which the movie is based? I’m pretty curious about it now.

    Reply
  11. Rob G

    Yes, Mac, I recommended it as well. Glad you liked it.
    I’ve heard that the latest version of ‘The Woman in Black’ is pretty bad, but there is a late 80s made-for-TV (British) version that’s quite good. Both are based on the short novel by Susan Hill, which is very creepy and worth reading if you like that sort of thing.

    Reply
  12. Mac

    She sounds interesting.

    Reply
  13. Grumpy

    I have English Catholic friends who like her books a lot. Never looked like my cup of tea.

    Reply
  14. Rob G

    Y’all need to see ‘Mud.’ Best film consciously set in the South that I’ve seen in a long time. “In theaters now!” as they say. Young Arkansas director Jeff Nichols is now 3 for 3.

    Reply
  15. Mac

    But I’ve been saving my biannual theater excursion for the new Terrence Malick movie. 🙂
    I did read a review of this the other day, I forget where, that made it sound interesting.

    Reply
  16. Rob G

    A friend of mine who saw all last year’s best picture nominees thinks that ‘Mud’ is better than any of them, even ‘Argo,’ which he really liked. Trust me, Mac — it’s worth making an extra excursion for. 😉

    Reply
  17. Janet

    Yes, and unfortunately both playing at the same time, probably for a short run.
    AMDG

    Reply
  18. Mac

    Is To the Wonder out yet?

    Reply
  19. Rob G

    It came out here (Pittsburgh) on the 19th. It was in one cinema only for a limited 2-week run. Other locales got it on the 26th, I think.

    Reply
  20. Janet

    Tomorrow here.
    AMDG

    Reply
  21. Janet

    No, today.
    I forgot it was tomorrow already.
    AMDG

    Reply
  22. Mac

    Guess I better check the theaters. Wonder if I’ve already missed it.

    Reply
  23. Craig

    Even here in Toronto — a city of over 2 million people — only one theatre is showing To the Wonder, and in their “elite” (that is, smallest) space to boot. I don’t think I’m going to get to it.
    Rob G, I hadn’t heard of Mud, but it looks good. I loved Take Shelter, and Shotgun Stories has been on my “to see” list for a while. I guess I’ll add Mud too.

    Reply
  24. Mac

    Well, I finally bestirred myself–not to see either of these, but to check local theaters. I can see G.I. Joe, Iron Man 3, and a few others pretty much any time and at any theater I want. But no To the Wonder and no Mud. I shouldn’t be surprised about the first, in light of what you say, Craig, but I think the review of Mud that I mentioned was actually in the local paper. So maybe it’s already come and gone.

    Reply
  25. Janet

    You ought to look at that theatre that had Tree of Life and see if they are going to have it.
    AMDG

    Reply
  26. Mac

    I did. They’re currently showing something called The Big Wedding. No mention of it in the schedule for the next 2-3 weeks, either.

    Reply
  27. Mac

    The Big Wedding sounds wretched:
    “With an all-star cast led by Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton, Amanda Seyfried, Topher Grace, with Susan Sarandon and Robin Williams, THE BIG WEDDING is an uproarious romantic comedy about a charmingly modern family trying to survive a weekend wedding celebration that has the potential to become a full blown family fiasco. To the amusement of their adult children and friends, long divorced couple Don and Ellie Griffin (De Niro and Keaton) are once again forced to play the happy couple for the sake of their adopted son’s wedding after his ultra conservative biological mother unexpectedly decides to fly halfway across the world to attend. With all of the wedding guests looking on, the Griffins are hilariously forced to confront their past, present and future – and hopefully avoid killing each other in the process. ”
    Those ultra-conservative biological mothers always mess everything up. There is probably a feel-good ending where the divorced couple come to some kind of forgiveness, if not reconciliation, while the u-c.b.m either loosens up or is made to look like a fool.

    Reply
  28. Janet

    “Charmingly modern.” If that’s not the kiss of death, I don’t know what is.
    Well, that’s once I can cross of the Netflix list.
    AMDG

    Reply
  29. Grumpy

    Mud is not on in South Bend, otherwise I would go and see it for sure. I am thinking of driving to Chicago to see To the Wonder.

    Reply

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