I am tired but still awake – sleepy but yet energized.
I am listening to Explosions in the Sky’s second album “Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Die, Those Who Tell the Truth Shall Live Forever” while catching up on some reading for JBU. In it there is a song entitled Have you passed through this night? which uses sound bites from the movie A Thin Red Line. I wonder how many people have seen this Terrence Malick classic? It is by-far my favorite movie of all time… bold statement? Yes.
The movie is based on a novel by James Jones and tracks a squadron of marines in a conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War. The book is a good read but it didn’t leave me “wanting” like the movie. Malick is a genius at slow playing the audience – moving story along at his pace rather then the pace you would expect from a epic World War film. While not lacking in intense battle scenes and bravado – the movie’s success lies in the development of the characters and depth in which they are portrayed.
Here are some memorable quotes:
Corporal Fife: Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth?
Pvt. Jack Bell: [voice over] We. We together. One being. Flow together like water. Till I can’t tell you from me. I drink you. Now. Now.
Private Witt: [voice over] Everyone lookin’ for salvation by himself. Each like a coal thrown from the fire.
Private Witt: Do you ever feel lonely?
First Sgt. Edward Welsh: Only around people.
Using vivid wordplay and interposing nature between two warring armies, Malick does a masterful job in detailing the dichotomy of man. A battle between love and hate – friend and foe – this movie will leave you pondering all of lifes complexities. I highly recommend the movie and the album… So go check em out sometime (you may regret it… or you may applaud it).
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Hrm, I don’t know about that. I know I was very dissappointed in the movie. Most likely due to my expectation being set by that other WWII movie, something about the Ryans.
Perhaps I should revisit the movie with a different set of lenses. But then again it was said 2001: A Space Odyssey was supposed to the mother of all Sci-Fi, which may be true but I still was bored out of my mind and I’m just as pensive as the best of them…