Came out during the VHS window for Saving Private Ryan, which was incredibly popular, fit better into America's WWII mythology, and had a whole lot less to say. Anyone who showed up to the theater expecting more of that probably walked out confused and disappointed, but I love it.
I'm thinking about it again. This is probably one of the only American war movies to portray large-scale military action (budget in the 50millions in 1998 money), without having any of that action be exciting. You don't see a lot of that without a single fist-pump moment. It's all terrifying.
Saw it 3x in a theater in the rainy el nino year of my sr year of hs. Loved the cinematography and prose. Got made fun of in my family of origin for years for daring to say that out loud. 🤷🏻♀️
Was telling the bf the other day how good it is and how I prefer it to saving private Ryan.
saving private ryan is heavy handed and gets bogged down in its own schmaltz after that absurdly good opening scene
thin red line is just chaos and terror and nonsense start to finish it is perfect
I went to see this with two friends. It was the full range of reactions.
Friend 1: They didn't kill enough people. Boring.
Friend 2: Malik tried to make a good movie but got distracted by filmmaking.
Me: Holy shit, I have to go find the rest of this guy's movies and watch them now.
So many scenes stuck with me but one I always remember is when Nolte comments that the bombardment really does no good but it "bucks up" the troops, then they show the troops witnessing/feeling the bombardment and you can see the absolute dread sweep over them as they now realize this is FOR REAL.
