The Thin Red Line

I have to confess that I had an unconscious stigma against this film. I think it was because it came out around the same time that Saving Private Ryan did, which really is no means to judge a movie. Even after watching Days Of Heaven, Badlands, and The New World I didn't really want to watch it. But Terrence Malick hasn't disappointed me yet and the same holds true of The Thin Red Line.
The film couldn't be any more unlike Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan (which touted itself as a deglorification of war, while still shamelessly flag-waving). The common complaint I've heard is that the film was slow and boring. I take boring to mean 'a general lack of action'; slow is self-explanatory. Although anyone familiar with Malick's ouevre will know to expect 'slow and boring', I think the more appropriate point is noting that where Saving... uses an excess of gore and violence to deglorify war (only to be matched ten years later by the fantastic Rambo), Malick's film deglorifies it by eschewing action and bravery. Instead he portrays another ugly, and more human reality of war: waiting, and being scared.
Malick tasteful incorporates stars (Sean Penn, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, and George Clooney) without being overwhelmed by their stardom. And like many of his other films, the narrative is well matched (if not exceeded by) with the use of neo-classical scores and the heavy poetics of his hallmark cinematography. A definite watch for Malick fans, or anyone looking for a gently realistic portrait of war.

Good - because an anti- war film has never looked so good.

Starring Sean Penn, John Cusack, Adrien Brody, George Clooney, John Travolta
Directed by Terrence Malick