Thursday, November 10, 2011
NATURE IN AND OUTSIDE MEN AT WAR
I spent two days watching Terrence Malick's beautiful and horrific
Malick's liberal translation of James Jones' novel.
Chock full of stars who barely register as stars, so gravely integrated are they into the company assigned to take a hill at Guadalcanal. This film is a meditation on life and war. The nature of man.
Beginning with an idyll for two soldiers AWOL on a peaceful section of the island, we see life as a rich scene of life, people, animals and vegetation. Innocence.
They are found and repatriated back into the war and from then on we see the opposite of the first scenes.
Horrific.
There are other scenes of loved ones at home interspersed with the battle.
This is not a normal war movie but because of that, it may be the most indelible film about war that you will ever see.
Malick is a genius and all of it is on display here.
The cinematography is incredible. The editing the same. It is a total piece of art.
I gave it a 5 before. It is a fearful and beautiful film. Just like life and the world we live in says Witt, one of the AWOL soldiers who acts as a one narrator of the piece. All the characters "talk over" at one time or another. There is not a lot of dialogue in the action itself.
Labels: films
