Thread: Religion Series; Humanism

The Thin Red Line for me personally is a very humanistic film. particularly considering it's a war movie.

The movie basically concerns the various soldiers in a company headed for Guadalcanal, in the Pacific Theater of the second world war. This is one of the more famous Pacific battles.

Anyway the movie charts the internal dialogues and emotional feelings and thoughts of various soldiers throughout the battle of Guadalcanal until they finally leave, and the themes it presents are not entirely satisfying, but still totally humanist.

The movie starts with us being presented with the goings on in a small native village in the pacific, where one of the main characters [Pvt. Whitt] is staying before being shipped to Guadalcanal. Here we are shown a very primitive way of living, by these people, they live a simple communal existence, unaware of the great world war, the great evil, which consumes the rest of the globe at the time.

The main crux of the movie is the juxtaposition of this peaceful and nature based existence, with the titanic clash and brutality of two fully developed nations going to war.

Before landing at Guadalcanal, two of the main characters have a dialogue, and something to this effect is said:

"There's not some other world out there where everything's gonna be okay. There's just this one, just this rock."

This is in reference to the horror and unfathomable suffering around them in this war.

Private Witt, having been living this Idyllic existence with the native people of the island, says

"I seen another world. Sometimes I think it was just my imagination."

What Private Witt means here, I interpret, is that in his experiences with the native village, he has maybe glimpsed a vision of humans living together, with no unneccessary suffering or hatred. A world in which human interaction and community is everything, and is beautiful alone. Nothing more is needed. No wealth, no war, no Gods, just people, human beings, living with each other, and experiencing the world.

But is this world real?

This screenshot sums up alot of the feel of the movie:

Spoiler for quite large image:

The contrast the movie creates, between man in a peaceful state of nature and man in an advanced war, is not as simple as all that though.

Questions are raised; Can mankind ever be free of conflict and suffering? Although the first part of the movie charts an arguably simplistic comparison, of nature and beauty in contrast with man created horror and war, we are shown later scenes from the same village, with natives fighting, and arguing, dying.

Is this idea of human peace and community just a fantasy, just like Private Witt's imaginings? And if it is, why does it feel so possible, feel so close, but just out of reach? Why is it so tantalising?



The issues aren't simple, and "The Thin Red Line" doesn't try to preach a straight answer, because there isn't one.

What we are shown, is the sense of longing and despair of the character, seeing how mankind has developed, somehow, from this primal and often beautiful simplicity, to a situation in which millions of innocent young people can be butchered efficiently, by people they don't know.

Now, I think this movie is humanist, because it addresses the real nature of human interaction. Can human beings ever live in peace. It tempts us with moments of absolute human peace and tranquility, before snatching them away, and leaving us only with the harsh and desolate brutality of modern war. In one intense scene, in the middle of a great gunfight to take some Japanese Bunkers, the camera focuses on a small bird hatching out of it's egg in the long grass, as the war rages.

Is Private Witt's "other world" real, or is it imagined? The movie doesn't answer this for us, it makes us ask the question, and I think that's how a movie should be. Never preachy, but always asking.


There are many other themes to the movie, I think it's highly layered, but I've specifically picked out the particularly humanistic part of it here. If you haven't seen the movie, I recommend it.



Relevant quotes from the movie [yes, they're a little pretentious at times]:

"This great evil. Where does it come from? How'd it steal into the world? What seed, what root did it grow from? Who's doin' this? Who's killin' us? Robbing us of life and light. Mockin' us with the sight of what we might've known. "


"I remember my mother when she was dyin', looked all shrunk up and gray. I asked her if she was afraid. She just shook her head. I was afraid to touch the death I seen in her. I couldn't find nothin' beautiful or uplifting about her goin' back to God. I heard of people talk about immortality, but I ain't seen it. I wondered how it'd be like when I died, what it'd be like to know this breath now was the last one you was ever gonna draw. I just hope I can meet it the same way she did, with the same... calm. 'Cause that's where it's hidden - the immortality I hadn't seen. "


Dead Japanese Soldier: "Are you righteous? Kind? Does your confidence lie in this? Are you loved by all? Know that I was, too. Do you imagine your suffering will be any less because you loved goodness and truth? "

Originally Posted by Carôusoul

The Thin Red Line

Seems interesting, I've put it on my 'to watch' list.

Ah, so this is what humanism means! Not bad, not bad. Making life better for all instead of being a selfish snob. Personal beliefs aside, this is actually a good "religion" (and I use quotation marks because I know some Humanists don't consider this to be a religion) to be followed.