The Thin Red Line - 7

I generally don't like war movies, this is one of the exceptions. It is also because this film was directed by Terrence Malick, who adapted the story from James Jones' novel. The film is character driven rather than story driven. It intersperses the story of a few men who are fighting in Japan during the second world war. While it is about the friendships that form in this tight knit setting, it gets more philosophical by asking questions of meaning and the characters trying to understand their purpose in life. The film is almost three hours long, which is longer than it needs to be to tell the story. The characters seem very real. The struggle to relate to one another because they realize that death makes everything fleeting and transient. Again the cinematography of Malick is amazing in this film, it shows well the struggle between man and nature just as it shows the fight between peoples.