Title: An arthouse anti-war film that misses the mark
Product review: I was very disappointed. In my opinion, The Thin Red Line is the best novel in James Jones' trilogy of World War Two ("From Here to Eternity", "The Thin Red Line" and "Whistle"). Instead of being true to the spirit of the work by giving the viewer an honest, gritty portrayal of infantry combat on Guadalcanal, Terrence Malick chose to create some post-modern mess of an anti-war film. A shame, because Jones' work delivers an overwhelming anti-war message through simple, brutal honesty. There was no reason to cloud the story with cranky, cheap poetics. The masterful art of James Jones deserves a better effort than this. Indeed, the director would have done better to make up the story out of whole cloth instead of trashing a great novel. (I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Malick didn't read the book at all). I found the film false, empty and an insult to those of us who cherish the work of one of our nations most brilliant authors.
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