Daily Clerks

I liked this movie. It has a lot going for it, but it’s not perfect. So let’s start with the good. First off it is a Terence Malick film. If your not familiar with his work, don’t worry you are not alone. He’s only made two other movies in his career, yet has created a reputation in the industry that others would die for. His reputation is so great that A list actors were begging for a part in the movie. I mean, in the first 15 minutes alone you see three Academy Award winners and a couple nominees. The movie is filled with recognizable faces and great actors. The film follows Charlie Company and their role in the battle of Gudalcanal. Yes it is a war movie with some gruesome and extensive battle sequences. However it is the quieter moments in the movie that make it standout. It is basically a long meditation on death and war. How ordinary men must overcome extraordinary obstacles just to survive. How men must be sacraficed in the name of war, and that the price of war is much steeper than mere dollars. I really liked this movie because it was intelligent, yet also satisfied my base desire to see men fight. However the movie never glorifies battle, it portrays it realistically (I presume) and unflinchingly, sometimes causing the viewer to cringe at the atrocities of war. So with that out of the way, here are some points were the movie falls flat. Too many famous faces. This can be a boon in some instances, but at the same time it becomes distracting. I found myself playing a sort of game of trying to identify the famous actor in the background. Lots of times these actors show up for in a bit part, I even wondered if the editor added footage to the movie just so that some of these A list actors could get more screen time. There are a lot of storylines going on at the same time. Some of these stories are given a good amount of time to develop and connect the audience with the characters. However there are also several storylines that go absolutely nowhere. You finish watching the movie and then you think ‘Hey what happened to that one guy’. All these small plotlines hamper the main story, and don’t necessarily add to it. All these storylines also come at a price. The movie clocks in at a little under three hours, a long time to dedicate to one movie. Especially when the director creates a piece that is slow to develop, which makes the movie feel that much longer. However, I don’t think these elements are distracting enough to make it not worth your while to see it. It is a good movie, with an intelligent script, a casting directors wet dream for a cast, and fine performances from even the smallest of players in the film. I definately recommend this movie if you are looking for a cerebral war film and not some action fluff.

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The Thin Red Line

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