[Closed] Recent Viewing Part III

I must say I haven't laughed once, but it's a spectacular and amazing visual treat nonetheless, therefore I thought it was decent (6 out of 10)

THE THIN RED LINE - Terrence Malick *****
I'm ashamed to admit I haven't fully and properly seen The Thin Red Line ever since my first viewing, which I had when I was unfamilair with Malick and therefore didn't know how to watch his films. I came out with complaints like 'too many undeveloped characters', 'not gritty enough' (being a fan at the time of the style Spielberg made Saving Private Ryan in) and all in all, thought it was a fine film, but it didn't grab me the way it should. Having revisited during the years several scenes, and getting familair with Malick as a philosophical poet, I came to realise it is, in fact, a masterpiece, I just hadn't seen it fully through those eyes yet.

Until last night, that is, watching it on the Criterion BluRay edition. And although I knew I'd love it, I had no idea it would grab me in such a way. It was as if I saw the film for the first time, I was glued to the screen. It's such a deep and heartfelt film that gets inside the minds of the soldiers that's gripping and devastating in equal measures. And then there's the photography, the details (the young, just-born bird coming out during a heavy massacre was harrowing), the music, etc. The film, of course, is not about the individual characters or events, it's about the collective soul during war, and the effect it has on man.

Somehow, I always preferred The New World as a film, simply because it's more focussed (I never liked that big amount of Hollywood stars and thought they were out of place) and because of its more historic subject matter (I usually prefer such older history over yet-another-war-film). But I have to admit, it's The Thin Red Line that's Malick's masterpiece. Not in the least because he might reuse some tricks in The New World, but he's developed them for this. And it works fantastically.

RESTORATION
On a more technical note, the restoration by Criterion is absolutely STUNNING. I didn't think the film needed a big clean-up job, since it's such a modern and big commercial film, but the people over at Criterion have worked wonders with the picture and audio presentation. Much brighter, much better contrast, sublime DTS HD Master audio track that really made me hear Zimmer's music like I never had before. It's a must own for any fan of the film (and one of the reasons I bought a region-free player). I was in constant awe and caught myself at times just marveling over the picture or sound, instead of just watching the film. I'm confident this is the first time ever since the theatrical release that you can see TRL the way it was supposed to. Bravo!

For samples of the improved picture, see: http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDRevie … d_line.htm

Good choice Thomas , I love that film !
Excellent acting by Jeff Bridges and Karen Allen .
The music is from composer Jack Nitzsche ...

Actually the first film that brought John Carpenter in a bit of a spotlight was Dark Star (1974) .
He made some short films before that . After Dark Star he made Assault on Precinct 13 and then
got his big break through Halloween . He's actually one of my favourite directors . Some of my
other fav's are The Fog , Escape from New York , The Thing , Christine , Big Trouble in Little China ,
the underrated Prince of Darkness and the fun They Live . After that it went all a bit downhill quality
wise . His new film The Ward is coming out this month . Haven't seen any previews of it yet though ...

indeed, good movie, and some spectacular effects too.

Right you are Bob !

School of Rock I have seen and Jack Black is extremely irritating in it.

Erm, Gilles, I hate to disappoint you, but I can confidently say that this transfer will never get to European BluRay. The Criterion Collection does their transfers by themselves, and in this case, it's a transfer that was developed in cooperation with Malick and cinematographer John Toll for a 'director's approved' edition. It's copyrighted by them, and when (if) 20th Century Fox decides to release it on BluRay themselves, they will have to create their own transfer (which will probably be just a cleaner version of the current DVD transfer). Yet since they gave the BluRay release rights in the US to Criterion, it might mean they're not interested in the BR release themselves. So... don't expect anything in the near future. That's why I bought my region free player for it .

You could, of course, import the DVD version from Criterion? (also region locked, but you might have a region free DVD player?). Or buy The New World on BluRay? That's a pretty neat representation of Malick's style as well .

I don't. In fact I think he's very good...as long as a VERY strong director can keep him in check.
Leave him "running around", "doing his thing", and yeah, disaster (or at the evry least major annoyance).
But controlled, I think he's funny, charismatic and quite a good actor.

Billy Connolly was better in an episode of Columbo, I think he was a take on Michael Kamen.

Piranha (the remake).

Finally, finally someone who understands how to recapture the nonsense horror schlock from the eighties.
Great fun, pretty good special effects, massive carnage, nudity....man, I'm 18 again!
Oh, and Richard Dreyfuss has a fantastic cameo at the beginning! Set the tone, made the film.

I'm glad the movie is better then the awful score ...
I loved the original Piranha and James Cameron's Piranha II , which was daft but great fun !

Sums up the whole movie i guess

No way mate, I'm blu all the way. Once you've experienced its power, there's no turning back... I'm sure you'll agree! Shame if it doesn't come out soon here. Would surprise me too, as Thin Red Line is not a lacklustre title that wouldn't sell well.



Sounds like something I will enjoy from start to end.

And it better not have a cheesy hollywood ending. I want babes and limbs and blood and screaming all the way until the end credits roll by!!!!!

excellent, I love Alexandre Aja's stuff, looking forward seeing it on blu-ray

marcel: thanks man. Thanks to this board i have saved numerous hours from my life that would have otherwise good wasted on crappy movies.