It’s one of ten war movies you must see in your lifetime: unfairly forgotten when it came out 25 years ago, it remains the absolute pinnacle of the genre.

The Battle of Guadalcanal was a key stage of the Pacific War. Marked by encounters of unprecedented violence, it pitted the Japanese and Americans against each other for many months in the heart of the Heavenly Land, inhabited by peaceful Melanesian tribes. Voices collide to express the horrors of war, confidence, complaints and prayers mingle…

In 1999, Ryan received 5 statues at the Academy Awards for Saving a Soldier. The Red Line, which marks Terrence Malick’s big return to cinema after a 20-year absence, remains in limbo with 7 Oscar nominations and no awards that night. Not even the best photography to highlight the exceptional work of cinematographer John Toll, who sometimes spent hours waiting for the right lighting.

The lack of an award that evening was all the more devastating given that The Red Line is, so to speak, a fairly rare example of a war film with some philosophical depth, mostly by Major. A real risk that unfortunately didn’t pay off as the film didn’t even bring in $100 million at the worldwide BO, while Spielberg’s film brought in over $480 million.

In this sublime poem and reflection on culture and nature, which gives and takes away, (s)life and death in the midst of hostile nature, thought and language, humanity and inhumanity, Malik Pantheist creates a fabulous gallery. of characters, all of whom end up being absorbed by the vengeful forces of Mother Nature.

“The world and life are one” said the great philosopher of language Ludwig Wittgenstein. The auteur, who is a deep admirer of Malick, thinks the filmmaker does a great job of creating himself with this film, enhanced by the hypnotic music of the prolific Hans Zimmer, who may be signing his beautiful soundtrack here.