The Thin Red Line

by Michel Chion

The Thin Red Line (1998) is only the third film directed by Terrence Malick, the maverick genius of American cinema, in his thirty-year career. Set during the savage World War II battle for Gaudalcanal, it boasts a stellar cast--including George Clooney, Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, and John Travolta--but otherwise goes entirely against the grain of conventional Hollywood filmmaking. Action, narrative, and patriotism are subordinated to cryptic interior monologues and exquisite images of animals and nature, a strategy found by many to be perplexing and disconcerting. 

How to make sense of this extraordinary film? Michel Chion traces the film's connections to Malick's earlier work and links The Thin Red Line to the novel on which it is loosely based. More than that, he pays minute attention to the film itself--the images, sounds, faces, landscapes, and words that create a magnificent reflection on the beauty, inexplicability, and tragedy of our coexistence with each other and with the world. 

Genres: Film, Nonfiction, Media Tie In, Art

96 pages, Paperback

First published June 12, 2004

Reviews

[Esteban del Mal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I learned just yesterday that a good friend of mine's son has been cast as an extra in a scene in an as yet unnamed Terrence Malick movie (Ben Affleck is involved somehow too...whatever) being filmed in Oklahoma.

I'm not very good at math, but that makes me like 2 or 3 degrees away from the man himself, right? I knew growing up with hillbillies would pay off one day!

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Michel Chion makes some great observations about Terrance Malick's epic war film in his book BFI: The Thin Red Line (2004). In his book-length essay he addresses the film in context with Malick's other two films to that date, Badlands and Days of Heaven as well as discussing the themes of the film. Early in the essay Chion suggests the influence of American transcendentalists such as Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman which seems obvious in retrospect but incisive nonetheless given Malick's interest in nature in his films. Chion also points out the importance of Hans Zimmer's score to the overall mood of the film. Here's a telling observation from Chion: "Here again we return to the question of loneliness, the space between words and consciousness, and between languages." An interesting discussion of one of the best films of the 90s.

[Kamakana · Rating 5 out of 5]

if you like this review i now have website: www.michaelkamakana.com

???200s?: if you love the movie this will only deepen your love; if you hate the movie? maybe this will help you appreciate it

[Sherry · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I first rated this book on GoodReads I gave it only 3 stars - but now, many months later, having re-read the book, I think I underrated it. So now it gets 4 stars! My initial impression was coloured by my emotional response to seeing the film the first time, I found it quite depressing. I think I was rating Michel Chion unfairly on my dislike of how the film made me feel, when his analysis of the material is actually intelligent and insightful. I will read this book again, any maybe I'll even track down a copy of the DVD and watch the film again, and see if I like it better now that I have more insight into what Terrence Malick was trying to do.