The Thin Red Line is a score I have been looking forward to ever since I heard that Zimmer was on the film and that the film bared favourable comparison with Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan in being a gripping account of warfare. Perhaps the biggest difference being that Thin Red Line deals with the wars that men fight in their own mind rather than the simple act of survival that Spielberg made seem so impossible from the infantryman's point of view. Like Spielberg, director Malick chose not to score the action sequences, but let the sound of the battle carry the visuals. Apparently Hans Zimmer ended up writing hours of music for the film and many different themes that were then whittled down and fitted to the on screen ebb and flow. The score has been highly praised by movie critics, which I can well understand since it provides a great deal of atmosphere. However, as a pure audio experience, it just doesn't hold up nearly as well. I can't help thinking that perhaps this score would have actually been more appropriate than Williams' score. That sounds like an insane thing to say, but (to me at least) quite rational. Williams tried to give the characters in Saving Private Ryan a heart and remind us that they are real people caught up in a heartless war. The problem with this approach is that it doesn't properly reflect the mood of the film, rather it tries to give the film a mood that perhaps it shouldn't have. Zimmer's music conjures up despair and fear as well and occasionally beauty. Williams pretty much stuck to his more heartfelt (but not sentimental) approach, but Zimmer's music is basically an hour long string elegy that tells of bleakness and despair, but not Copland-esque humanity.
There is an excellent half hour or perhaps three quarter hour score in Thin Red Line, but much of the rest seems to just meander a little too much. The opening two cues could perhaps have been cropped somewhat since it is only in track three when the music starts to perk up somewhat and seem like it has a point. Journey to the Line starts with a clicking noise that I considered a scratch on the CD until I realised it coincided with the violins that then come in. This is almost a Hans Zimmer meets Philip Glass with a repeating figure that builds up until the brass join in to provide an excellent almost self-contained 6 or 7 minutes of music. There is a short coda of slightly aimless violin music that could have been trimmed, however, the potential of the score certainly becomes very apparent with that track. Beam, which was composed by John Powell (for some unknown reason) isn't really very interesting and follows the pattern of aimless string writing without adding anything striking to the texture of the score. Stone in My Heart re-introduces the repeating patterns but counters it with a high end violin solo that is exceptionally beautiful. Village is also very emotive and sensitive and has a decent structure to it so doesn't appear pointless. The main theme (if you can call it that) is a very long line series of string textures that appears most prominently in the opening of Silence. It appears as a motif that can be heard several times and at least provides a grounding for some of the slower parts.
I read (and I can't remember who to thank for this) but Thin Red Line does work much better as an overall score. If you can get into it and listen to the entire thing several times over then it does become a lot more rewarding. Saving Private Ryan deserved the same treatment since it was easier to grasp the structure of the tracks after a few listens and Thin Red Line works similarly. Even if there doesn't seem to be an end point it is going for, much of the time, it does provide an atmosphere like no other Zimmer score and like no other war movie score that I've heard. I am going to award Thin Red Line four, rather than three which I had originally considered before repeated hearings. Like the film, Thin Red Line is a flawed masterpiece of a score. There are many poignant and powerful moments that really work well, but there are also several genuinely uninteresting sections. The last two tracks, the first of which is a short choral piece that sounds extremely ethnic and completely ruins the mood for me (despite being often enquired about). The singing is harsh and amateurish, which brings the correct flavour for the song, but doesn't work in the context of the score. The final cue is a horrible whining electric guitar (or similar) cue that could have been dropped. A CD that is definitely worth picking up for tracks 3 to 9 if nothing else and demonstrating Zimmer's talents as never before.
Rating ~ 
Total Time ~ 58:56