The Thin Red Line by Aaron Charny

Title/Year: The Thin Red Line (1998)

Director/Birth Country/Year Born: Terrence Malick, USA, 1943
Budget: $52,000,000 (Estimated)

Gross: $81,600,000 (Worldwide)
Synopsis: During WWII the battle of Guadalcanal, the men of C-Company are bound together as they each individually struggle with the horrors of war.
Narrative and Visual Keywords: war, survival, unit, brotherhood, U.S. soldier, Japs, Voice Over Narration

Characterization/ Dialogue: A group of young soldiers is brought in to secure an important positioned airfield that allows control over a 1000-mile radius from the Japs. The task puts the men through hell. The horrors of war forms the soldiers into a tight group, their emotions develop into relationship of love and even family.

Camera/lighting/editing technique: Malick uses close ups on subjects that are narrating, close ups of subjects before we go to the flashbacks. He makes us feel trapped with the soldiers, by using POV shots from inside the enemy bunker and behind the machine guns.

Political/ Social Commentary: This film shows us the horrors of war from both sides of the fight. 
Historical Relevance/ Recognition: Gene Siskel, film critic and journalist for the Chicago Tribune, described it as the "finest contemporary war film I've seen, supplanting Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan from earlier this year, or even Oliver Stone's Platoon from 1986.” The Thin Red Line was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score, Best Picture, Best Sound and Best Adapted Screenplay. The film did not  win any of these awards.

Notable Collaboration: The film marked Malick's return to filmmaking after a 20-year absence. It features a large ensemble cast, including performances and cameos by notable actors, including Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Adrien Brody, George Clooney, John C. Reilly, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, and John Travolta.
Random fact, Etc. The original cut of the film was just under 6 hours in length. Over a million feet of film was shot. Actors Bill Pullman, Gary Oldman, Mickey Rourke, Lukas Haas and Viggo Mortensen filmed scenes for the movie, but were cut from the final film

1. From the start of the film, the US soldiers were working together, helping each other and always watching each other’s backs. While on the ship before they arrive to the island, we see a mix of different solders voice their concern about the war, putting almost all the men in agreement with each other before any war scene happens.

3. There is a scene were Lt. Col. Gordon Tall (Nick Nolte) is questioning Capt. Staros (Elias Koteas) if any of his men are willing to sacrifice their lives for the war. Capt. Staros doesn’t reply to the question.

During the end of the film Pvt. Witt (Jim Caviezel) volunteers to head the unit with 2 other soldiers to find out were the enemy is attacking from. Once they find the enemy he again volunteers to stay behind to distract the enemy saving the rest of the unit’s life. 

*Pick out bits of dialogue, visual images, or scenes which you consider especially effective in revealing character and tell why they are effective.

Private Witt narrates, “How'd we lose that good that was given us? Let it slip away. Scattered it, careless. What's keepin' us from reaching out, touching the glory?” while we see wounded and dieing soldiers. We see that Witt’s character is not just any other solider, that he is an honest one and that he sees war for what it is.

*Which characters function as stock characters and stereotypes and how can the presence of each be justified in the film?

Nick Nolte plays a stereotypical lieutenant colonel, who seems to care more about winning the war then keeping his men alive. During a phone conversation lieutenant colonel orders Capt. James Staros to keep fighting, in which Staros reply’s, “I've lived with these men, sir, for two and a half years and I will not order them all to their deaths.”

           

During another scene, lieutenant colonel is yelling out for his men to keep going after then just conquered some of the Japs land. Capt. John Gaff reminds the lieutenant colonel that his men are in need of water. The lieutenant colonel throws out many excuses and justifications as to why there is no water. Finally he realizes that Graff is right, without admitting it. He orders some water for his men.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120863/