I’ve only seen two of writer/director Terrence Malick’s films and the score stands at one win and one loss.
The loss goes to his first feature film, BADLANDS (1973) which propelled co-stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek to stardom. The film is lyrical, poetic and absolutely dreadful. Based on a true story, BADLANDS is a staggeringly boring piece of filmmaking focusing on two misfit teenagers who go on a killing spree. It’s nowhere as good as it sounds and if you’re looking for similar and far superior films, check out the film noir masterpiece, GUN CRAZY (1950) and the wildly historically inaccurate but entertaining nonetheless BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967).
So, a big thumbs down to BADLANDS. I haven’t’ seen Malick’s second film, DAYS OF HEAVEN (1978) and though widely praised, I have no desire to ever see it. Malick, almost as much of a recluse as J.D. Salinger decided to take most of the next twenty years off, before finally delivering his third film, THE THIN RED LINE (1998).
I want to give this film the highest possible recommendation as one of the truly great WWII films. But I’m held back by the endless navel gazing that bookends the actual combat narrative. There’s a ton of what I call “wugga-wugga” philosophizing going on at the beginning and end (and a small part in the middle) of the film that could easily be excised without harming the film in the least. That run time of 171 minutes could easily be brought down to 141 minutes, but Malick is determined to meditate on his thematic concerns involving the collision of civilization with the natural world. Oh, it’s beautifully shot but in my opinion unnecessary.
The battle part of the movie concerns the battle of Guadalcanal in the Pacific theater of WWII. Malick gives us intensely up close, terrifying images of combat that capture the horror and insanity of war. Ordered to take a Japanese held hill, men and weapons are constantly ordered forward at all costs to ultimately take the hill, a position that proves to be of absolutely no strategic value to the American forces.
Gung-ho officer Nick Nolte holds the whip that drives the men into harm’s way and even though one junior officer opposes him, he will ultimately have his way in his pursuit of a higher rank.
If you lop off the first and last fifteen minutes, I believe you are left with one of the greatest WWII films ever made. It’ that good. Four stars and highly recommended. Five stars without the mumbo-jumbo.
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