Every image of a Terrence Malick film is a painting imbued with meaning, with The Thin Red Line in particular full of shots examining the struggle between sheer beauty and utter malice. But the opening shot for Malick's third is an instant symbolic representative of the entire film, as an alligator submerges itself in a tropical pond, its beady eyes and tough armour slowly sinking below the water. The alligator disappears under a layer of algae, and becomes a silent, hidden threat waiting to strike. And that's how The Thin Red Line views death, and war, in a nutshell. The tranquillity of nature, what we see here as lush jungle, is punctuated by the quiet ferocity of a predator. Later, American and Japanese forces will destroy this setting with bombs and bullets it's something the opening shot wordlessly foreshadows.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
