The Thin Red Line
Seen in conjunction
with The Tree of Life we recognise a
common style with The Thin Red Line.
Thematically, the script raises what philosophers might call “the problem of
evil”. It does this in the context of fighting action between American and
Japanese troops sometime during the second World War. A lot of use is made of
voiceover, whereby the audience can benefit from hearing the internal
monologues that the characters deliver. Some are bitter, like the inveterate
military-man who bites his tongue in the presence of those superior in rank but
who have unjustly, as he sees it, overlooked him for promotion. Some are
homesick and others are war- and death-sick. Whit, a private played by Jim
Caviezel, we sometimes are shown living among the Melanesian natives on the
beaches of the island that the Americans and Japanese are contesting. His inner
life is more outward looking, if that makes sense, as he himself apparently
tries to make sense of the contrast between the extremely beautiful and
extremely ugly aspects of life in that time and place, leading him to
contemplate what might be beneath the surface of life itself. Interestingly,
this capacity for reflection on life’s elusive fundamentals is accompanied by a
concern for his comrades and a capacity for action. Although Sean Penn’s name
is primary among the credited actors of what is really an extraordinary cast,
Caviezel’s character is the screenplay’s fulcrum.
The action sequences
are exciting and, I guess, lifelike. There are two main such sequences. One,
which occupies the most part of the movie, involves a battalion’s efforts to
capture a strategic outpost from the Japanese. For much of this sequence, we
are only aware of the presence of the enemy (from the American perspective)
from the lethally whistling bullets that strafe the Americans, whose advances
are tentative and trepidatious. We eventually see more of the Japanese
soldiers, at a point in the story when emotions are pitched to levels that
individuals rarely experience. It probably reflects badly on me that I began to
view proceedings as an acting war between those playing the soldiers from the
opposing armies. I imagined the camera scanning such an acting battlefield, where
actors did their best to convey the horrors of war and victory was to do
something that earned your performance a place in the final edit. Anyway,
enough of that. The soundtrack is made up of what seem to be songs by a
Melanesian Gospel choir. Some of the songs are very beautiful and I found them
to be simultaneously familiar and mysterious, having heard gospel music before
but not with the flavour of the pacific islands.
What with the level of craft evident in this movie, it
could sustain repeated viewing. The result of the battles will always be the
same, unfortunately, and favourite characters will get killed everytime, if
that’s their fate, no matter how many times you watch it. Who are the “good
guys”, though, is less easy to pin down with similar certainty, and this movie
challenges us to broaden our perspectives on that question. Conclusions may be unsettling,
viewer discretion advised.