The Thin Red Line (1998)

Synopsis: Extremely self-aware American GIs reflect on life’s big questions as they open a can of whoop-ass during the Battle for Guadalcanal.

Blurb From the VHS Jacket: “A powerful frontline cast – including George Clooney, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte and Woody Harrelson – explodes into action in this hauntingly realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II.”

What Did I Learn?: If your commanding officer tells you: “we’re in this together”, he’s probably full of shit and just wants to make a name for himself.

You Might Like This Movie If: You loved Glass Tiger during the 1980s, and figure the tape must be a collection of their greatest hits.

Really?: I had a little trouble believing eight different soldiers would each provide strikingly similar-sounding, stream-of-consciousness voice-overs, such as: “We were a family. How'd it break up and come apart, so that now we're turned against each other? Each standing in the other's light. How'd we lose that good that was given us? Let it slip away. Scattered it, careless. What's keepin' us from reaching out, touching the glory?”

Rating: Originally nearly 6 hours long, The Thin Red Line was cut down to 170 minutes (which explains why George Clooney appears for maybe 5 minutes right at the end. He shows up, explains the war isn’t about to end by Christmas, and then...the movie is pretty much over). It’s a good film that's marred by too many characters spouting the same psychobabble. 7/10 stars.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120863/