War is not poetic. Being shot at is not poetic. Risking your life for the good of country and fellows in arms is not poetic. So why did director Terrance Malick decide to shoot the adaptation of James Jones autobiography that why, I'll never know, with his film "The Thin Red Line?"

"The Thin Red Line" is this horribly over-poetic almost three hour movie based on Jones' 1962 novel of the same title. The picture follows a pack of young reinforcement soldiers, as they attempt to help a group of battle weary Marines, breaking the Japanese resistence on Guadalcanal during WWII.

During this, we get to meet a handful of unusal characters, giving us different perspectives on war, including the weary sergeant Welsh, played by Sean Penn (Mystic River), a power hungry Lt Colonel Tall, played by Nick Nolte (Afflication), and a company commander Cpt. Gaff, played by John Cusack (Being John Malkovich), unsure of his leadership skills.

The only main character I can tell whom we follow through the non-existent story is Pfc Witt, played by Jim Caviezel (Frequency), who makes going AWOL a hobby and gets killed in the end.

The picture is almost three hours long and feels obnixiously longer. The viewer is given useless sequences of Witt swimming with native children of Guadalcanal. The rest of the time, we are subjected to every soldiers opinion on war, in what appears to be more like contrived stumping than natural flowing dialogue.

Cinematography was gorgeous at the hands of two-time Academy Award winner John Toll (Braveheart, Legends of the Fall), as usual. However, the picture had three editors, and none of them wanted to scrap a frame of useless footage.

Director Malick's pacing on this picture is severely painful. "Saving Private Ryan" was released this same year, and it overshadowed "The Thin Red Line" completely in my book.

Thank goodness, he has not directed a movie to be released since. However, "The New World" is coming to theaters, written and directed by Malick (like "The Thin Red Line") about the explorative efforts of John Smith and his run in with the American natives. Great, more poetic shots of another foreigner swimming with half naked natives. Sounds right in Malick's department.

"The Thin Red Line" maintained a concept and ridiculous camera perspective, which attempted to make war beautiful and warm. Malick has obviously not been in combat, and probably never spoke to anyone who has, and if he did for this picture…he didn't listen.

I get the sense this man would be strong as either a director, or a writer. I do not feel he has the ability to trade one hat for the other when it comes to making hard decisions for the betterment of the project.

I can't suggest seeing this agonizing three-hour torture of a supposed war film. Rent "Saving Private Ryan" instead. You'll thank me.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?