Tuesday, September 23, 2008
The Thin Red Line: Melanesian songs
Stephen of Rough Trade and I have been discussing films. One in particular which I singled out for praise, and he hasn't dissented, is Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line. Superficially it is a war film; to me, that would be like calling Strauss' Blue Danube a tune to which people like to dance. Pressure of work, including an overseas trip for which I am about to leave, precludes a detailed discussion of my own views at the moment. To kick off the discussion, however, here is an example of one of the incidental pleasures of the film, a song by the Melanesian choir which forms an integral part of the soundtrack to the film. The accompanying images (of course I lifted it all from Youtube) are rather shaky shots from the film, but they too give some idea.
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6 comments:
Great film, one of my favourites. The book is also very good, although quite a different experience. The DVD that I got years ago has a great load of special features with these songs.
Kris is right to mention James Jones original novel. Although a somewhat slight film, it is still worth seeking out Andrew Marton's 1964 version since it makes an interesting comparison with the Malick. Plus it has a great lead performance from Keir Dullea, subsequently of 2001 fame.
I will try and look up the earlier version when I get the chance, and indeed the novel. However, what has held my fascination with Malick's film is not the story as such but the compelling cinematography, the fine performances from the likes of Nick Nolte (of whom I'm not normally a fan) and Malick's philosophical ruminations on the meaning of life (which come through as much as in the imagery as from the voice-overs).
"When compared to the fact that he might very well be dead by this time tomorrow, whether he was courageous or not today was pointless, empty. When compared to the fact that he might be dead tomorrow, everything was pointless. Life was pointless. Whether he looked at a tree or not was pointless. It just didn't make any difference. It was pointless to the tree, it was pointless to every man in his outfit, pointless to everybody in the whole world. Who cared? It was not pointless only to him; and when he was dead, when he ceased to exist, it would be pointless to him too. More important: Not only would it be pointless, it would have been pointless, all along."
James Jones 'The Thin Red Line' 1962
I'm slightly surprised to find you not more enthused of Nick Nolte's work beyond Thin Red Line, not least because his work for Martin Scorsese is so good. His Sam Bowden in Scorsese's remake of Cape Fear is the one redeeming feature of a very disappointing film while his Lionel Dobie in the excellent 'Life Lessons' segment of New York Stories is surely superb.
It is possible that Nolte played some part in getting Malick to tackle Jones' autobiographical novel since he certainly encouraged James Ivory to film A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries (another autobiographical novel, this time by Jones' daughter). Nolte should have played Jones in that film, but the Malick shoot overran, and Kris Kristofferson took over.
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