
What is the thin red line about?
During a war, combatants often ponder the deep existential questions of life. These questions form the basis of Terence Malick’s 1998 war drama The Thin Red Line.
Did Alex Jones serve in the thin red line?
The author served in the United States Army 's 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division . The Thin Red Line, originally published in September 1962, shares its central characters with Jones's other two World War II novels, though with their names necessarily altered, and examines their different reactions to combat.
Is'the Thin Red Line'a good film?
In a special episode of Siskel and Ebert, guest host Martin Scorsese selected The Thin Red Line as the second best film of the 1990s behind The Horse Thief. Time magazine ranked Malick's film #6 on their Best of 1998 Cinema list. Jonathan Rosenbaum, film critic for the Chicago Reader, ranked Malick's film as his second favorite film of 1999.
Who is Private Witt in ‘the thin red line’?
If there is a central character in The Thin Red Line, it is Private Witt (Jim Caviezel), an enigmatic and charismatic presence, who marches to a different drummer, much like Martin Sheen’s Kit in Badlands.
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What was the point of The Thin Red Line?
The Thin Red Line is about words as much as it's about anything; more precisely, it's about the intimate interconnection between word and image, which Malick explores in truly audacious ways, especially in the scenes with voice-overs.
Is Thin Red Line a true story?
Adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War. Adaptation of James Jones' autobiographical 1962 novel, focusing on the conflict at Guadalcanal during the second World War.
Was Johnny Depp in The Thin Red Line?
Casting the picture took over a year. “The Thin Red Line” had a long-gestating period. Word got out in 1995 that Malick was working on a new film, but casting didn't even take place until 1996 and 1997. Part of the reason why people like Johnny Depp, Brad Pitt and others didn't appear in the film is simple.
How long is George Clooney in The Thin Red Line?
2h 50mThe Thin Red Line / Running time
What does red line stand for?
The thin red line flag was developed to show support and solidarity with fire service personnel and to honor injured or fallen firefighters. The thin blue line flag was created to show support for law enforcement.
Is The Thin Red Line flag disrespectful?
The meaning of the red line flag was certainly not meant to be disrespectful. It's purpose is to honor fallen firefighters and the department, but there has been some controversy. Because it's an altercation of the American flag, some people do not agree with it.
Did The Thin Red Line win any Oscars?
Golden BearAmerican Society of Cinematog...Satellite Award for Best Ense...Satellite Award for Best Origin...National Society of Film Critics...Satellite Award for Best Cine...The Thin Red Line/Awards
What island was Thin Red Line filmed?
the Solomon IslandsThe film was scored by Hans Zimmer and shot by John Toll. Principal photography took place in Queensland, Australia and in the Solomon Islands.
Is The Thin Red Line Boring?
Compare to SPR, The Thin Red Line is a deeply moving and emotional film, many people think it's needlessly long and boring because they couldn't be objective, feel the movie and fit into it.
What war was the movie Thin Red Line based on?
In the 1962 James Jones novel on which it is based, this is a story about the Guadalcanal campaign, fought in the Solomon Islands in 1942-3.
Is The Thin Red Line anti war?
Ultimately, "The Thin Red Line" isn't about who won or lost Guadalcanal. Malick, who also wrote the script, is aiming for something higher than a story about ballistics and military strategy. It can be called an anti-war film, but its disdain for the very conventions of the medium make it an anti-anti-war film.
Did The Thin Red Line win any Oscars?
Golden BearAmerican Society of Cinematog...Satellite Award for Best Ense...Satellite Award for Best Origin...National Society of Film Critics...Satellite Award for Best Cine...The Thin Red Line/Awards
What island was Thin Red Line filmed?
Starring an ensemble cast, comprising Jim Caviezel, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Adrien Brody, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, and Jared Leto, the film was released on December 25, 1998, by 20th Century Fox, and nominated for 7 Oscars. The Thin Red Line was shot in Australia, Solomon Islands, and the USA.
Who made the thin red line?
The Thin Red Line (1962) by James Jones was adapted by Malick over the course of five months. New York -based producer Bobby Geisler first approached Malick in 1978 and asked him to direct a film adaptation of David Rabe 's play In the Boom Boom Room.
What is the red line of heroes?
The novel's title alludes to a line from Rudyard Kipling 's poem " Tommy ", from Barrack-Room Ballads, in which he calls British foot soldiers "the thin red line of heroes", referring to the stand of the 93rd Regiment in the Battle of Balaclava of the Crimean War . The film marked Malick's return to filmmaking after a 20-year absence.
How long was the first draft of The Thin Red Line?
Malick began adapting The Thin Red Line on January 1, 1989. Five months later, the producers received his first draft, which was 300 pages long.
How much did the thin red line grosse?
Box office. The Thin Red Line was given a limited release on December 25, 1998, in five theaters where it grossed $ 282,534 on its opening weekend. The film was given a wide release on January 15, 1999, in 1,528 theaters where it grossed $9.7 million during its opening weekend.
Who wrote the White Hotel?
In 1988, Geisler and John Roberdeau met with Malick in Paris about writing and directing a movie based on D. M. Thomas ' 1981 novel The White Hotel. Malick declined, but told them that he would be willing instead to write either an adaptation of Molière 's Tartuffe, or of James Jones ' The Thin Red Line.
Who wrote the music for the movie The Unanswered Question?
Among the music not written by Zimmer which appears in the film is In Paradisum from Requiem by Gabriel Fauré and the opening minutes of The Unanswered Question by Charles Ives . Zimmer wrote several hours of music, and an abundance of different themes, before Malick started to shoot the film.
Where was the film Thin Red Line filmed?
The film was scored by Hans Zimmer and shot by John Toll. Principal photography took place in Queensland, Australia and in the Solomon Islands . The Thin Red Line received critical acclaim upon release.
Who was the character in the first novel of The Thin Red Line?
Jones tackled the problem by changing the names of the three characters of the first novel, enabling them to appear in The Thin Red Line. The character of Prewitt became Witt, Warden became Welsh and Stark became Storm. (Jones' later novel Whistle (1978), features a similar set of characters, now named Sergeant Mart Winch, Bobby Prell, ...
How many times has the novel The Thin Red Line been adapted?
The novel has been adapted for cinema twice , first as Andrew Marton 's The Thin Red Line in 1964, then as Terrence Malick 's The Thin Red Line in 1998.
What is the thin red line?
The Thin Red Line, originally published in September 1962, shares its central characters with Jones's other two World War II novels, though with their names necessarily altered, and examines their different reactions to combat. Jones had originally intended the central male characters of his previous war novel From Here to Eternity to appear in this work. But Jones remarked that "the dramatic structure—I might even say the spiritual content—of the first book demanded that Prewitt be killed at the end of it". Jones tackled the problem by changing the names of the three characters of the first novel, enabling them to appear in The Thin Red Line. The character of Prewitt became Witt, Warden became Welsh and Stark became Storm. (Jones' later novel Whistle (1978), features a similar set of characters, now named Sergeant Mart Winch, Bobby Prell, and Johnny "Mother" Strange; Corporal Fife in The Thin Red Line also reappears as company clerk Marion Landers in Whistle .)
What is the thin red line about?
Adapted from James Jones’s 1962 novel, The Thin Red Line chronicles the experiences of the men of Charlie Company who are part of the American force charged with seizing the strategically important tropical island of Guadalcanal from the Japanese in 1942-43. With certain notable additions and adjustments, Malick extracts his basic events ...
Where does Witt live in the Prologue?
Witt’s apartness and affinity for Otherness is clear from the outset: in a prologue that is entirely Malick’s invention, we see him living among the Melanesians, the indigenous people of the Solomon Islands, leading an idyllic existence, clearly AWOL.
Who filmed Saving Private Ryan?
Jones drew his characters sharply, and indicated the ways in which each acted according to his ability and personality; his novel could have been filmed by Spielberg in the style of " Saving Private Ryan .".
Who is Terrence Malick?
Terrence Malick is the director of two of the best films I have ever seen, " Badlands " (1973) and " Days of Heaven " (1978). "The Thin Red Line" feels like an extension of the second film, in which a narrator muses on the underlying tragedy that is sometimes shown on the screen, sometimes implied. Both films are founded on a transcendental sense ...
Is the thin red line a movie?
The Thin Red Line. The actors in "The Thin Red Line" are making one movie, and the director is making another. This leads to an almost hallucinatory sense of displacement, as the actors struggle for realism, and the movie's point of view hovers above them like a high school kid all filled with big questions. My guess is that any veteran of the ...

Overview
The Thin Red Line is a 1998 American epic war film written and directed by Terrence Malick. It is the second screen adaptation of the 1962 novel of the same name by James Jones, following the 1964 film. Telling a fictionalized version of the Battle of Mount Austen, which was part of the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific Theater of World War II, it portrays U.S. soldiers of C Company, 1st Batt…
Plot
In 1942, United States Army Private Witt goes AWOL from his unit to live among the carefree Melanesian natives in the South Pacific. He is found and imprisoned on a troopship by First Sergeant Welsh of his company. Witt is not allowed to rejoin his unit, and is instead punitively assigned to act as a stretcher bearer for the upcoming campaign.
The men of C Company, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division have been br…
Cast
• Sean Penn as 1st Sgt. Edward Welsh
• Adrien Brody as Cpl. Geoffrey Fife
• Jim Caviezel as Pvt. Robert E. Lee Witt
• Ben Chaplin as Pvt. Jack Bell
Production
The Thin Red Line (1962) by James Jones was adapted by Malick over the course of five months.
New York-based producer Bobby Geisler first approached Malick in 1978 and asked him to direct a film adaptation of David Rabe's play In the Boom Boom Room. Malick declined the offer, but instead discussed the idea of a film ab…
Music
The film score was composed by Hans Zimmer, with additional music from John Powell. The album was nominated for Best Dramatic Score at the 71st Academy Awards. It was Hans Zimmer's fifth Oscar nomination as a composer, but he lost out to Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful (music by Nicola Piovani). The album was released by RCA Victor and conducted by Gavin Greenaway. Among the mu…
Release and reception
The Thin Red Line was given a limited release on December 25, 1998, in five theaters where it grossed $282,534 on its opening weekend. The film was given a wide release on January 15, 1999, in 1,528 theaters where it grossed $9.7 million during its opening weekend. The film earned $98,126,565 at the worldwide box office.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based o…
Home media
On September 28, 2010, The Criterion Collection released a special edition of The Thin Red Line on DVD and Blu-ray with a new, restored 4K digital transfer, supervised and approved by Terrence Malick and cinematographer John Toll. The release was met with positive reviews.
Further reading
• Schaffer, Bill (July 2000). "The Shape of Fear: Thoughts after The Thin Red Line". Senses of Cinema (8).
• Critchley, Simon (December 2002). "Calm: On Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line". Film-Philosophy. 6 (38). doi:10.3366/film.2002.0023. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
• Chion, Michel (2004). The Thin Red Line (BFI Film Classics). Trista Selous (translator). British Film Institute. ISBN 978-1-84457-044-7. Monograph translate…
• Schaffer, Bill (July 2000). "The Shape of Fear: Thoughts after The Thin Red Line". Senses of Cinema (8).
• Critchley, Simon (December 2002). "Calm: On Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line". Film-Philosophy. 6 (38). doi:10.3366/film.2002.0023. Retrieved November 8, 2015.
• Chion, Michel (2004). The Thin Red Line (BFI Film Classics). Trista Selous (translator). British Film Institute. ISBN 978-1-84457-044-7. Monograph translated from French.