The Thin Red Line - Holden Minor

The Thin Red Line was a deep and interesting film to me. I have always been a fan of a film that will show a realistic ugly underbelly of a situation, and this film surely did. I appreciate that this film was not reserved on the horror of battle psychologically and the death toll which was abundant in this bloody war. I emphasize the psychological aspect because the movie was actually very deep in addressing the stress and pressure that each soldier would be under in the heat of battle and the decisions they would be forced to make and carry out. In The Thin Red Line, we are showed multiple instances in which soldiers seem to lose pieces of their sanity and well being as the battles go on and the war progresses forward. Not many times in film do we have war portrayed as a mental health disaster, but as a valiant fight for freedom and safety of a country or people. Displaying this loss of sanity in the midst of chaos is helpful in drawing attention to the many effects and harms of war between people.

Another interesting aspect of the film was the use of nature in many of its’ forms. At the beginning of the film we see an alligator slip beneath the surface of the water and become hidden. This is a reference to the fact that many dangers are unseen and unavoidable until they strike. There are a great deal of unseen dangers in war. One danger that was explored in a scene in the film involving a village of men was the danger of human beings when they act on emotion and think of only themselves. This theme is one of nature vs. human nature and in what ways they are alike as well as what ways they differ. For example, there are many aspects of human nature that are a result of necessity and are somewhat unavoidable just like there are necessities in nature which must happen. There are also things involving human nature that a man can do out of fear or self righteousness that in a natural aspect would often not happen due to its’ complication. The film was very helpful in showing the comparisons between nature and war by using strict visuals which needed no dialogue. The scenes where soldiers crawled through the grass and came upon vicious snakes were ones that applied greatly to the idea that danger is everywhere in war, just as it is in nature.