Intro: Ages ago when I was still a teenager, I tried to watch this movie. I heard great things about it and I wanted to know what all the fuzz was about. 20 minutes in and I stopped. I remember thinking it started so slow, I felt I wasn't sure I could finish it. Decades have passed and, for watherver reason, a few weeks ago I remembered about this movie, remembered how I gave up when I tried to watch it the first time, and felt now it was the right time to give it a go.
Film 2353: "The Thin Red Line" (1998), Terrence Malick
Watched on: My computer
Language: English
Watched with: No one
Thoughts: I wont' lie, it took all the patience I had in me to finish this movie. Not becuase it's bad - the very opposite - but it's so long (171 min) I wasn't sure I had it in me after a while.
That said, "The Thin Red Line" is extremely well made, I think you can tell that Malick is really interested in nature, a lot of the shots are actually just forest. It really does help you immerse yoursefl in the story, although including all these shots really encreases the runtime of the movie. Once you're at peace with that, you can really focus on the story.
There are a billion characters (and famous actors) in this movie, to the point that sometimes it's overwhelming. I was curious to see how the story would have handled so many storylines, but to be fair most of these famous actors that you read the name of on the poster are just there for a scene or two (George Clooney and John Travolta, for example), so that explains how they managed to secure so many famous names. It's still impressive how many famouse faces from that decade you recognize while watching the movie.
Overall, I really enjoyed "The Thin Red Line". In a way, it's more "poetic" than "Saving Private Ryan", although still very much grounded into reality, it has a way of telling its story differently, often stopping to focus on nature, a detail, a face. I liked this approach, in a way it gives you a moment to take all in, process the cruelty you just witnessed, the horrors of war. Funny enough, the two movies share similar topics and themes, they both faced against each other at the 1999 Oscars ceremony and they both lost Best Picture (still a massive scandal to this day) to "Shakespeare in Love".
Cast: Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, Jared Leto, Tim Blake Nelson, Thomas Jane, Miranda Otto, John Travolta.
Box Office: $98.1 million
Worth a watch?: A tough watch, I won't lie. Definitely not a movie for all occasions or everybody, it handles a heavy topic (depicting a a fictionalized version of the Battle of Mount Austen, which was part of the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War) and it takes its time to do it. I really liked it, but I'm not sure I'd watch it again.
Awards: Nominated for 7 Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Dramatic Score, and Sound. Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the César Awards. The movie won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Key word: Bunker.
Trailer
#HollywoodCiak
Bengi
Watched on: My computer
Language: English
Watched with: No one
Thoughts: I wont' lie, it took all the patience I had in me to finish this movie. Not becuase it's bad - the very opposite - but it's so long (171 min) I wasn't sure I had it in me after a while.
That said, "The Thin Red Line" is extremely well made, I think you can tell that Malick is really interested in nature, a lot of the shots are actually just forest. It really does help you immerse yoursefl in the story, although including all these shots really encreases the runtime of the movie. Once you're at peace with that, you can really focus on the story.
There are a billion characters (and famous actors) in this movie, to the point that sometimes it's overwhelming. I was curious to see how the story would have handled so many storylines, but to be fair most of these famous actors that you read the name of on the poster are just there for a scene or two (George Clooney and John Travolta, for example), so that explains how they managed to secure so many famous names. It's still impressive how many famouse faces from that decade you recognize while watching the movie.
Overall, I really enjoyed "The Thin Red Line". In a way, it's more "poetic" than "Saving Private Ryan", although still very much grounded into reality, it has a way of telling its story differently, often stopping to focus on nature, a detail, a face. I liked this approach, in a way it gives you a moment to take all in, process the cruelty you just witnessed, the horrors of war. Funny enough, the two movies share similar topics and themes, they both faced against each other at the 1999 Oscars ceremony and they both lost Best Picture (still a massive scandal to this day) to "Shakespeare in Love".
Cast: Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly, Jared Leto, Tim Blake Nelson, Thomas Jane, Miranda Otto, John Travolta.
Box Office: $98.1 million
Worth a watch?: A tough watch, I won't lie. Definitely not a movie for all occasions or everybody, it handles a heavy topic (depicting a a fictionalized version of the Battle of Mount Austen, which was part of the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific Theater of the Second World War) and it takes its time to do it. I really liked it, but I'm not sure I'd watch it again.
Awards: Nominated for 7 Oscars for Best Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Editing, Original Dramatic Score, and Sound. Nominated for Best Foreign Film at the César Awards. The movie won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Key word: Bunker.
Trailer
#HollywoodCiak
Bengi
