Der Schmale Grat

A war movie as a glorification of the beauties of nature. Malick’s philosophizes more about people than war and the battle of Guadalcanal in his eyes is neither a duel between individuals nor a clash of cultures. But rather another in a row of senseless clashes taking place on Earth, where people can choose to behave toward each other either like humans or dogs. (02.04.2015)

Terrence Malick confirms for me the position of one of the most overrated directors of today. His early films were good, but then he got lost and returned as a film philosopher who actually says nothing in three hours. And when even a war film can be boring, it's questionable, but that's simply because Malick says so much that he actually doesn't say anything at all. (01.04.2016)

God, why? Why does such a brilliant director so stubbornly refuse to tell a story? The Thin Red Line is not a classic war film, which is something I could appreciate as someone who doesn’t like classic war films. Unfortunately, it’s something even worse: a wannabe spiritual borefest. It’s really funny how many people have Malick as a great philosopher and his films as deep wells of wisdom. Sod that! Philosophy is a scientific discipline and not lengthy bulshitting about the immortality of a git! This was martyrdom. The characters go and go, they shoot for a while, then go again, they utter morsels of wisdom here and there… and that lasts for almost three hours. The film tries to draw a psychological portrait of a lot of characters, and I believe it fails spectacularly because after awhile I lost track of who is saying what. It’s brilliantly crafted, but Malick is not my cup of tea. The more I watch from him, the less I look forward to The Tree of Life (and I was really looking forward to it after the trailer). (17.02.2011)