Thin Red Line


The key takeaway from Thin Red Line is that nature is indifferent to war. Man lives and dies but nature simply exists in time. Nature has no higher calling as it only exists in the present and objectively only does what is necessary in an effort to survive. Despite the war that is transpiring in the film nature slowly returns to normalcy as the smog of war settles. Man on the other hand never fully returns to normal after a conflict such as war. Man simply has to move on with life and reflect on how their actions impact their inner selves while nature is able to simply return to itself.   Within the context of the film nature represents the sublime as a whole. The wide panning shots of the hill particularly before the conflict begins command a sense of awe. The calmness and peace experienced within the shot of the grass rolling over the hill is quickly juxtaposed by explosions, gunfire, and death all around once man becomes involved with nature. Throughout the film the shots of nature without the involvement of man could be considered holy and sublime with war and human conflict assisting in the appreciation of the peace which can no longer be had once man is engaged in conflict. 

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 3, 2020 at 11:06 AM

    I agree that a main component of the film focused around natures indifference to war and would delve farther into the topic much so as to relate the billboard eyes from "The Great Gatsby" to the nature seeming to be ever present within this film. Therefore, in relating the two components of the different movies, one would see that they are both representation of the mysterium of the divine. The divine sees all as represented in both movies via differing symbolic representations, and one thing lacking in the movie version of "The Great Gatsby" is the tremendum as well, though it is more so represented in the book. I made this comparison as I watched the thin red line due to the nature seeming to "watch over" all of the toil happening throughout the timeline of the war. As you said, the still shots of nature without the presents of man throughout the movie were seemingly tranquil and divine in a way and I believe that to have been purposeful for the divine found within the Bhagavad-Gita is said to connect All to Everything including the divinities in which the natural world is created.

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