The Thin Red Line really is a piece of art, rather than just a movie. I may not be the biggest fan of the movie, but I am beginning to appreciate it as a meditation on certain things rather than as a Private Ryan knockoff. I've been told that a number of actors in the film, including John Travolta, did the film for free just for the opportunity of working with Terrence Malick. I don't know if this is true, although I'm sure Travolta has enough money and might do something like that. The point is that the movie is purposely slow and meandering; look at it as a painting or a thought, rather than an action war movie where lots of people die.