War Movie Month: The Thin Red Line (1998)

"Malick's Guadalcanal would be a Paradise Lost, an Eden, raped by the green poison, as Terry would call it, of war. Much of the violence was to be portrayed indirectly. A soldier is shot, but rather than show a Spielbergian bloody face we see a tree explode, the shredded vegetation, and a beautiful bird with a broken wing flying out of a tree"

-Producer Robert Geisler on Malick's vision for the film

This movie marks the return of Terrence Malick, whose last film Days of Heaven, was released twenty years earlier. This movie is a great example of filmmaking. It has a gripping storyline, stunning visuals and stellar performances from a cast with more stars that has ever been seen.

The movie recounts a fictionalised version of one of the battles in the Guadalcanal Campaign during the Pacific War in WWII. Private Witt (Jim Caviezel) has been found after going AWOL and is reassigned to Charlie Company under the leadership of First Sergeant Welsh (Sean Penn). Led by Lieutenant Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte), the men in the battalion are charged with capturing and controlling an island currently held by the Japanese.

The story is accompanied by narration from various soldiers who all ponder the point of war. This narration is usually voiced over stunning landscapes of Queensland (where the film was shot). The narration does not extend as far as the battle scenes, which have Hans Zimmer's beautiful score drowning out the sounds of war. One scene where this is especially prevalent is when the battalion finally takes the Japanese camp. The soldiers run through the camp and kill all who aren't surrendering, but if you were to close your eyes and listen, this is not the image that you get.

There are four main characters that most of the action focuses on. Caviezel, Nolte, Penn and Elias Koteas all carry most of the plot. But it's the cameos that take you off guard. Stars like Adrien Brody, George Clooney, Jared Leto, John Travolta and Woody Harrelson all have tiny parts in the film. I can only imagine that this was due to their excitement at hearing that Terrence Malick was making a film after twenty years and jumped at the opportunity to work with the acclaimed director.

Verdict: This movie searches for the emotional core of war and does a pretty good job and finding it through a sea of heavy themes. Much better than Saving Private Ryan, the other big WWII film that came out in 1998.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

The Planet of the Apes franchise has had a bit of a checkered history. It is generally agreed upon that Tim Burton's remake of the original 1968 classic was terrible, but prior to that there was a short series of films that directly followed the original, these being Beneath, Escape, Conquest and Battle (all with the of the Planet of the Apes suffix). Of these movies, only Escape from the Planet of the Apes was good. So I think we're kind of lucky that 2011's Rise of the Planet of the Apes was a success, especially after the franchise had died two times over.

Dawn begins a decade after Rise which ended with the hint of a virus which only affected humans was about to spread. Well this 'simian flu' (as it's called in this movie) spread and wiped out the majority of mankind. Caesar and the apes from the first film are living in a colony outside San Francisco. A group of humans led by Malcolm (Jason Clarke) stumble upon this group while trying to find a hydroelectric dam in the area and become the first humans to contact the colony. This contact, combined with distrust between the two groups, eventually leads to violence.

The evolution of the world between the last movie and this one is really amazing. The fall of human society while the ape one flourishes is a fantastic contrast. The humans don't want to return to the time just after the fall of society because they were no better than animals, while all that the apes want is a safe community where they can live.

Again there are references to previous Apes films. The opening scene is one of the apes hunting some deer. These techniques are the exact same that they will use to hunt humans in the original film. They now have horses, which is their preferred mode of transport in the original. Also the name of Caesar's wife(?) is called Cornelia, a homage to Cornelius the chimpanzee who helped Taylor the lost astronaut. There is however, no sign of the eventual status quo that we know the planet will eventually fall into, with the orang-utans as the leaders.

This cast almost reads as a who's who of my favourite actors. Aussie Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty) leads the human cast superbly and his relationship with Gary Oldman pulled at my heartstrings at times. Keri Russell, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Kirk Acevedo (my all time favourite actor) round out the human cast.

But the most praise has to go to the actors who play the apes. Motion capture technology has come so far in my lifetime and it's only going to get better. Andy Serkis (Caesar) is so good at this now, it's second nature to him. His performance is unbelievable in this movie as are the others. Toby Kebbell (RocknRolla) and Judy Greer (Arrested Development) are also great, especially being the first time they've both done this.

Verdict: A great follow up to Rise of the Planet of the Apes and the series can only get better from here.