1998   Canada The Thin Red Line
The Thin Red Line Image Cover
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Director:Terrence Malick
Studio:20th Century Fox
Writer:James Jones, Terrence Malick
IMDb Rating:7.6 (73,088 votes)
Awards:Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 17 wins & 19 nominations
Genre:War
Duration:170 min
Languages:English
IMDb:0120863
Amazon:B00005PJ8T
Search:NetflixYouTube
Terrence Malick  ...  (Director)
James Jones, Terrence Malick  ...  (Writer)
 
Kirk Acevedo  ...  Pvt. Tella
Penelope Allen  ...  Witt's Mother (as Penny Allen)
Benjamin Green  ...  Melanesian Villager (as Benjamin)
Simon Billig  ...  Lt. Col. Billig
Mark Boone Junior  ...  Pvt. Peale
Adrien Brody  ...  Cpl. Fife
Norman Patrick Brown  ...  Pvt. Henry
James Caviezel  ...  Pvt. Witt
Ben Chaplin  ...  Pvt. Bell
George Clooney  ...  Capt. Bosche
John Cusack  ...  Capt. Gaff
Jarrod Dean  ...  Cpl. Thorne
Matt Doran  ...  Pvt. Coombs
Travis Fine  ...  Pvt. Weld
Paul Gleeson  ...  1st Lt. Band
Nick Nolte  ...  Lt. Col. Gordon Tall
Jim Caviezel  ...  Pvt. Witt
Sean Penn  ...  1st Sgt. Edward Welsh
Elias Koteas  ...  Capt. James 'Bugger' Staros
Dash Mihok  ...  Pfc. Doll
John C. Reilly  ...  Sgt. Storm
Woody Harrelson  ...  Sgt. Keck
Miranda Otto  ...  Marty Bell
Jared Leto  ...  2nd Lt. Whyte
John Travolta  ...  Brig. Gen. Quintard
Nick Stahl  ...  Pfc - Beade
John Toll  ...  Cinematographer
Comments: Every man fights his own war.

Summary: One of the cinema's great disappearing acts came to a close with the release of The Thin Red Line in late 1998. Terrence Malick, the cryptic recluse who withdrew from Hollywood visibility after the release of his visually enthralling masterpiece Days of Heaven (1978), returned to the director's chair after a 20-year coffee break. Malick's comeback vehicle is a fascinating choice: a wide-ranging adaptation of a World War II novel (filmed once before, in 1964) by James Jones. The battle for Guadalcanal Island gives Malick an opportunity to explore nothing less than the nature of life, death, God, and courage. Let that be a warning to anyone expecting a conventional war flick; Malick proves himself quite capable of mounting an exciting action sequence, but he's just as likely to meander into pure philosophical noodling--or simply let the camera contemplate the first steps of a newly birthed tropical bird, the sinister skulk of a crocodile. This is not especially an actors' movie--some faces go by so quickly they barely register--but the standouts are bold: Nick Nolte as a career-minded colonel, Elias Koteas as a deeply spiritual captain who tries to protect his men, Ben Chaplin as a G.I. haunted by lyrical memories of his wife. The backbone of the film is the ongoing discussion between a wry sergeant (Sean Penn) and an ethereal, almost holy private (newcomer Jim Caviezel). The picture's sprawl may be a result of Malick's method of "finding" a film during shooting and editing, and in some ways The Thin Red Line seems vaguely, intriguingly incomplete. Yet it casts a spell like almost nothing else of its time, and Malick's visionary images are a challenge and a signpost to the rest of his filmmaking generation. --Robert Horton


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