In the history of Hollywood, there has never been a director who is as mature and restrained as Terrence Malik. From the first work "Poor Mountains and Bad Waters", Terrence Malik has been trying to shoot mainstream movies that go against the trend of Hollywood. "The Thin Red Line" can be described as a humanitarian masterpiece. He used subversive film language to break the traditional Hollywood method of shooting war films. For similar movies, such as "Saving Private Ryan", Terrence Malik used his philosophical talent to give the film more human value. He persuaded the producers to use the best actors and the most luxurious production team, and the shooting was long. One million feet of film is just to give people something other than emotional impact. He is familiar with Heidegger and likes to study the individual forms of characters, so as to pay attention to the whole historical events. He likes to make detailed descriptions of flowers and trees. From his works, a naturalistic aesthetic has always been implemented, and his works are closer to the aesthetic habits of the Orientals.
At the beginning of the film, he used ten minutes of events to describe the various forms of the island: bright sunshine, blue water, various strange plants, and there are also songs describing indigenous people with religious characteristics. Terrence Malik completely put aside the shadow of war. Obviously, he re-deconstructed the war with a Buddhist mind. War films may be just a technique for him, but more of his thinking about the dual opposition between man and nature: as a member of the beautiful nature, what is the significance of the discovery of war? His combination of contemplative language and poetic lens is perfect. From this situation, he fully revealed his pursuit of human utopia.
There are two main characters in the film: soldier Waite and the deputy company commander. In a few rival scenes between the two, Waite and the deputy company commander respectively explained their different attitudes. As a realist, the deputy company commander believes that human beings have only one world, and we have no choice in order to live. But the unsophisticated Waite believes in utopia and ideals. The film puts the first conversation between the two in the icy destroyer, showing ulterior motives in lighting, the time on the deputy company commander's face is cold and sharp, and Waite is soft and yellowed. In the second conversation, the lighting technique was also the same. The director used this inconsistency of light and shadow to express the spiritual gap between the two people, but it is actually a complementarity. The common point is to cherish life. The only difference is big love and little love. The deputy company commander used his actions to "educate" Waite, which also led to Waite's sacrifice. At the end of the film, Waite used his death to prove his ideals, and this lofty ideal of "great love" can only Get it with death. In the face of a bloody war, this outcome cannot but be said to be an irony.
There is no lack of existential elements in the film's group portrait expression. The director isolates everyone from the world, like Sartre's "Confinement", using various human states to express: How can human beings survive better? The director put many scenes on the description of natural scenery, not only to contrast the cruelty of war, but also to highlight the director's "Zen consciousness": how the relationship between humans and nature has been destroyed by a few aliens. The director uses the inconsistent way of light and shadow to express the mental state of various people. He wants to point out: After the deprivation and disappearance of individual power in modern society, human collectivism has begun to burst, pulling away from the coat of "justice" After that, he became the opposite of nature, at which point the theme of the film was close to "A Boat on the Road".
The film’s location shooting uses pure natural light, and all use open composition, making the film look more subtle. Obviously, the director focused on the relationship between war and man, war and the world, war and nature. As we all know, Terrence Malik likes to shoot feature films with pure natural light, and does not pay attention to the smoothness of light and shadow. His way of expression is to give people a hint of personal desire: only harmony and unity with nature can avoid human killing. The only way is to achieve harmony between man and nature. In order to prevent human beings from falling into the whirlpool of desire and complete communication with God. This concept similar to Nietzsche's "Eternal Reincarnation" is another breakthrough in the director's anti-war consciousness.
Looking at the whole film, what Terrence Malik wants to highlight is not the so-called "war story" or "war scenario" but the director's process of speculation on war, and this rationalism is based on humanitarianism. Yes, it turns out that there is no more than a thin red line between life and death, love and hate.
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