 |
|
description: |
One of the cinema's great disappearing acts came to a close with the release of
f1i The Thin Red Line
f0i0 in late 1998. Terrence Malick, the cryptic recluse who withdrew from Hollywood visibility after the release of his visually enthralling masterpiece
f1i Days of Heaven
f0i0 (1978), returned to the director's chair after a 20-year coffee break. Malick's comeback vehicle is a fascinating choice: a wide-ranging adaptation of a World War'caII novel (filmed once before, in 1964) by James Jones. The battle for Guadalcanal Island gives Malick an opportunity to explore nothing less than the nature of life, death, God, and courage. Let that be a warning to anyone expecting a conventional war flick; Malick proves himself quite capable of mounting an exciting action sequence, but he's just as likely to meander into pure philosophical noodling--or simply let the camera contemplate the first steps of a newly birthed tropical bird, the sinister skulk of a crocodile. This is not especially an actors' movie--some faces go by so quickly they barely register--but the standouts are bold: Nick Nolte as a career-minded colonel, Elias Koteas as a deeply spiritual captain who tries to protect his men, Ben Chaplin as a G.I. haunted by lyrical memories of his wife. The backbone of the film is the ongoing discussion between a wry sergeant (Sean Penn) and an ethereal, almost holy private (newcomer Jim Caviezel). The picture's sprawl may be a result of Malick's method of "finding" a film during shooting and editing, and in some ways
f1i The Thin Red Line
f0i0 seems vaguely, intriguingly incomplete. Yet it casts a spell like almost nothing else of its time, and Malick's visionary images are a challenge and a signpost to the rest of his filmmaking generation.
f1i --Robert Horton
|
| uuid: |
658625F9-817B-11D9-A8AB-000A959D0BD2" |
| upc: |
086162118500 |
| title: |
The Thin Red Line |
| theatricalDate: |
08-01-1999 |
| stars: |
Sean Penn
James Caviezel
Nick Nolte |
| purchase date: |
17-02-2005 |
| publisher: |
Twentieth Century Fox |
| published: |
07-11-2000 |
| price: |
$34.98 |
| net Rating: |
3.48 |
| MPAA Rating: |
R |
| last lookup time: |
130403096 |
| genre: |
Feature Film-drama |
| edition: |
DVD |
| director: |
Terrence Malick |
| currentValue: |
$6.89 |
| created: |
130403096 |
| aspect: |
Color
Closed-captioned
Widescreen
Dolby |
| asin: |
6305438218
|
|
