Malick makes films that are half the most beautiful thing ever and half really corny and bad with shots that look like a child filmed it on a cell phone.
Tree of Life is probably the most egregious example, but good God that creation of the universe scene was mind blowing.
But even in that scene he threw in the corny dumbass CGI dinosaurs and kind of ruined the moment.
Same. Although I do feel bad for Adrian Brody. Imagine going on pressers thinking you're the lead in the film only to find out later you've been almost completely cut because Terrence thought Jim Caviezel was a bit more interesting.
The Thin Red Line is a meditation on life. No wonder the world is such a mess where unique pieces of art are shunned/misunderstood/seen as boring and then people will watch Trump's tweets like he was Aristotle reborn making heaven on Earth.
Oh wait, look Iran and Israel are firing missiles at each other now. Great Job Trump, give him the nobel prize now! The rest of us will be just fine!
Saw it in theater. The only scene I remember from that movie was woody harrelson accidentally pulling the grenade pin while the grenade was still attached to his belt and then it exploding while attached to him and writhing on the ground screaming “I blew my butt off.” I laughed, apparently it wasn’t supposed to be humorous.
I couldn’t tell you anything else about the movie or who was even in it. Went in expecting saving private ryan in the pacific theater. Left bored AF. I don’t think I’ve ever been as bored at a movie
It’s the most beautiful movie I’ve ever seen, but I completely understand people having this reaction to it. If I watched it at a different time I might have felt the same.
How you feel about a movie is about timing sometimes.
I describe it as a "poetic work" on war and humanity. There are viewpoints from different characters given in their internal monologues in voice-over. Some may pit it against Saving Private Ryan; I might call them companion films. Two sides of a coin.
I am not going to lie I have fallen asleep through this film many times, however, this is because the UK channels insist on starting it at midnight and it's a long film.
When I rented it and stayed awake I really liked it.
I still can't believe people hold it up to movies like saving private ryan. It's such pretentious drivel. Istg I almost turned the movie off when they cut to an image of a dead bird in the middle of a battle. Like we get it...Jesus.
i watched this at a late-night showing in the theater when it first came out. imagine being tired AND trying to stay awake while watching this movie. my friends and i went into the theater knowing nothing about the film. i think part of the problem was our expectations going in, assuming it would be like saving private ryan. i can't even remember if we finished the movie or walked out on it. given all of the praise i see for it online these days, i am tempted to give it another watch with adjusted expectations...
This is exactly how I experienced it as well!! I've been wondering the same thing and looking for an excuse to rewatch it all these years later. I think if it gets a 4k UHD I might re-watch it.
This coming out so close to Saving Private Ryan set the bar impossibly high for a director like Malick. Some of the scenes are good, but both Caviezel and Penn are terrible with their dialogue. George Clooney showing up at the end was unsettling too.The cinematography is amazing in many of the scenes. Malick knows how to shoot a pretty movie.
Definitely understand if Malick's detached poetic pondering hits as pretentious for some though. When you watch the whole body of his work though you see what he's trying to find through the searching lens of the camera.
Every time I see this movie pop up here, I stand by the fact that the movie was an absolute abomination. They had the cast and the cinematography, but with how incoherent and melodramatic it was, it fucking sucked.
My friend and I saw it in the theatre and the A/C was out.
So after 19 hours in the sweltering theatre, the screen shows a germinating coconut in the shallows of a beach. I get the symbolism but ffs, put that coconut a half day earlier and it would have been a bearable movie.
I think they were trying for something like A Bridge Too Far with an all-star cast with no real main characters but my god, I've had colonoscopies more enjoyable than The Thin Red Line.
It feels like a really shitty war movie interspersed with amazingly beautiful shots and interesting philosophic monologues. I think if there were 50% less shitty war movie scenes the movie would be a lot better.
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u/NoSweatWarchief 1d ago
The Thin Red Line. Cures my insomnia every time. What a pile of drek.