NationMaster - Encyclopedia: The Thin Red Line (1998 film)

The Thin Red Line is an Academy Award nominated 1998 film which tells the story of United States forces during the Battle of Guadalcanal in World War II. It marked director Terrence Malick's return to filmmaking after a twenty year absence. Malick adapted the screenplay from the novel of the same name by James Jones, which had previously been adapted in a 1964 film. The film features a large ensemble cast. The project took 20 years to make as Malick spent years researching and deciding whether or not to do it. Once it was announced that he would be returning to filmmaking, many big name movie stars expressed interest in appearing in the film, including Robert De Niro, Kevin Costner, Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt. Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman, Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas, Viggo Mortensen and Mickey Rourke acted in the movie, but their scenes were eventually removed. Reportedly, the first assembled cut took seven months to edit and ran three and a half hours, with Thornton contributing three hours of narrative voice-over material none of which was ultimately used. Image File history File links The_Thin_Red_Line_Poster. ... Terrence Terry Malick (born November 30, 1943 in Waco, Texas) is an Assyrian American film director. ... James Jones (November 6, 1921 â€“ May 9, 1977) is an American author most famous for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... Sample from a screenplay, showing dialogue and action descriptions. ... Sean Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor and director best known for playing intense, often humorless and unsympathetic characters. ... Adrien Brody (born April 14, 1973) is an American actor known for his freakishly large nose. ... This article is about the actor. ... James Patrick Caviezel, Jr. ... Ben Chaplin (born Benedict Greenwood on 31 July 1970, Sunderland) is an English actor who first came to public attention for his performance as Matthew Malone in the first series of the sitcom Game On. ... George Timothy Clooney (May 6, 1961) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter who gained fame as one of the lead doctors in the long-running television drama, ER (1994â€“99), but is best known for his subsequent rise as an A-List movie star in contemporary American cinema. ... Woodrow Woody Tracy Harrelson (born July 23, 1961) is an American Emmy Award winning and Academy Award nominated actor. ... Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is a Oscar-nominated American actor, model, and producer. ... John Christopher Reilly (born May 24, 1965) is an Academy Award-nominated American actor. ... John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor, dancer, and singer. ... Elias Koteas (born March 11, 1961) is a Canadian actor. ... John Savage (born John Youngs on August 25, 1949 in Old Bethpage, New York) is an American film actor, producer, production manager and composer. ... Jared Joseph Leto (born December 26, 1971) is an American actor and musician. ... Tim Blake Nelson (born May 11, 1964) is an American character actor and film director. ... Stahl at the Terminator 3 premier. ... Hans Florian Zimmer (born September 12, 1957) is an Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe award-winning film score composer from Germany. ... John Toll is an American cinematographer born in Cleveland, Ohio. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display full 1998 Gregorian calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... is the 15th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... is the 49th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_Thailand. ... [[Media:Italic text]]{| style=float:right; |- | |- | |} is the 50th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_New_Zealand. ... is the 56th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_Kingdom. ... February 28 is the 59th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... USD redirects here. ... USD redirects here. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ... The year 1998 in film involved some significant events. ... This article is about motion pictures. ... The Military of the United States, also known as the United States Armed Forces, is structured into five branches consisting of the: United States Army United States Marine Corps United States Navy United States Air Force United States Coast Guard Reserves United States National Guard United States Army Reserve United... Operation Watchtower On August 7, 1942, the 1st Marine Division performed an amphibious landing east of the Tenaru River. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki TÅjÅ Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Terrence Terry Malick (born November 30, 1943 in Waco, Texas) is an Assyrian American film director. ... The Thin Red Line is author James Jones fictional account of the World War II Battle of Guadalcanal, which he experienced firsthand in the US 25th Infantry Division. ... James Jones (November 6, 1921 â€“ May 9, 1977) is an American author most famous for his explorations of World War II and its aftermath. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... An ensemble cast is a cast in which the principal performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance in a dramatic production. ... Robert De Niro in 1988 Robert De Niro (born August 17, 1943) is a two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning American film actor, director, and producer. ... Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American film actor, director and producer. ... Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and film producer. ... William Bradley Brad Pitt(born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. ... Billy Bob Thornton[1] (born August 4, 1955) is an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter, actor, as well as occasional director, playwright and singer. ... Martin Sheen (born August 3, 1940) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor. ... Leonard Gary Oldman (born March 21, 1958) is an English actor, writer and director who initially came to prominence for his portrayal of Sid Vicious in the 1986 film Sid & Nancy. ... William Pullman (born December 17, 1953) is an American film and television actor. ... Lukas Haas (born Lucas D. Haas on April 16, 1976) is an American actor. ... Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. ... Mickey Rourke (born September 16, 1956) is an American actor who has primarily appeared in drama, action, and thriller films. ...

The film was not successful at the North American box office where it only grossed $36 million, well below its $52 million budget. However, it did well in the rest of the world and finally grossed over $81 million worldwide. Critical response was generally strong and the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards: best picture, director, screenplay, cinematography, editing, musical score and sound. It won the top prize at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival. Martin Scorsese ranked it as his second favorite film of the 1990s on Roger Ebert's television show. North America North America is a continent[1] in the Earths northern hemisphere and (chiefly) western hemisphere. ... // The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is one of the Academy Awards, awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which are voted on by others within the industry. ... The Academy Award for Directing is one of the awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences; the awards are voted on by other people within the industry. ... The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. ... Charles Rosher the first recipient in 1928 The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is awarded each year to a cinematographer for his work in one particular motion picture. ... The Academy Award for Film Editing was first given for films issued in 1934. ... The Academy Award for Original Music Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer. ... The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most aesthetic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. ... One of the A festivals in Europe. ... Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (IPA: AmE: ; Ita: []) (born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, writer and producer and founder of the World Cinema Foundation. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ...

Synopsis

When the film opens, a U.S. Marine private, Witt (James Caviezel), is AWOL from his unit and living with Melanesian natives in the South Pacific. He is found and imprisoned on a cargo ship by his company first sergeant, Welsh (Sean Penn). What becomes clear from Welsh's conversation with Witt is that the private is less than enthusiastic about serving in the Army. United States Marine Corps Emblem The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is the second smallest of the five branches of the United States armed forces, with 170,000 active and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2002. ... A Private is a soldier of the lowest military rank (equivalent to Nato Rank Grades OR-1 to OR-3 depending on the force served in). ... James Patrick Caviezel, Jr. ... For other uses of Desertion, see Abandonment. ... Melanesia (from Greek black islands) is a region extending from the west Pacific to the Arafura Sea, north and north-east of Australia. ... Australasia Australasia is a term variably used to describe a region of Oceania: Australia, New Zealand, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. ... Sean Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an Academy Award-winning American film actor and director best known for playing intense, often humorless and unsympathetic characters. ...

The men of C Company have been brought to Guadalcanal as reinforcements in the campaign to seize the island from the Japanese. As they wait in the holds of a Navy transport, they contemplate their lives and how they may be affected by the invasion. On deck, Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte) talks with his commanding officer, Brigadier General Quintard (John Travolta), about the invasion and its importance. Tall's voiceover reveals that he’s been passed over for promotion and this battle may be his last chance to command a victorious operation. Guadalcanal, position (inset) and main towns Guadalcanal is a 2,510 square mile (6 500 kmÂ²) island in the Pacific Ocean and a province of the Solomon Islands. ... The multinational Combined Task Force One Five Zero (CTF-150) The British Grand Fleet, the supreme naval force of World War I A rare occurrence of a 5-country multinational fleet, during Operation Enduring Freedom in the Oman Sea. ... Nicholas King Nolte (born February 8, 1941) is a Oscar-nominated American actor, model, and producer. ... John Joseph Travolta (born February 18, 1954) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor, dancer, and singer. ...

C Company lands on Guadalcanal and hikes to the interior of the island, seeing only sporadic clues that there is any Japanese presence at all. (At one point they find the mutilated bodies of two GIs.) They arrive near Hill 210, a key Japanese position. The Japanese have placed a bunker housing several machine guns at the top of the hill, giving them full view of the valley below. Any force attempting to climb the hill can be easily cut down by machine-gun fire and mortar rounds.

Shelling of the hill begins the next day at dawn. Shortly after, C Company attempts to take the hill and is instantly slaughtered by gunfire from the bunker. During the battle, Colonel Tall fiercely orders his field officer, Captain Staros (Elias Koteas) to charge directly toward the bunker, whatever the cost. Staros refuses, not wanting his men to be cannon fodder. The two reach a stalemate, so Tall decides to join Staros on the front line to see the situation for himself. By the time he arrives, the Japanese resistance seems to have lessened, and Tall's opinion of Staros seems to have been sealed. Also, during the battle, Pvt. Witt, having been bumped down to a stretcher bearer, asks to return to the infantry and is permitted to do so. Elias Koteas (born March 11, 1961) is a Canadian actor. ... Cannon Fodder is an expression used to denote the treatment of armed forces as a worthless commodity to be expended. ...

A small detachment of men perform a reconnaissance mission on Tall's orders to determine the strength of the Japanese bunker. Private Bell (Ben Chaplin) reports back, saying that there are about five machine guns in the bunker. He joins another small detachment of men, led by Captain Gaff (John Cusack), on a commando mission to take the bunker. The operation is a success and the rest of C Company are able to proceed with the larger mission of capturing the Japanese airfield in the center of the island. They are successful in this regard; the Japanese they find are largely malnourished and dying and put up little resistance. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Ben Chaplin (born Benedict Greenwood on 31 July 1970, Sunderland) is an English actor who first came to public attention for his performance as Matthew Malone in the first series of the sitcom Game On. ... This article is about the actor. ...

A long stretch of the story then centers on the personal lives and moral views of the men. Staros is relieved of his command for disobeying Tall's orders. Tall nevertheless promises to recommend Staros for several decorations and JAG duty in Washington, D.C. — he does not want the unit's name to be stained by the fact of having an officer removed from command. Elsewhere Private Bell receives a letter from his wife asking him for a divorce. Witt leaves the company to find another native village, only to find that his sense of peace in such places has been shaken, as he sees that even here there is horror and evil. He returns to the company before his departure has been noted. A conversation involving Sgt. Welsh and Witt follows, revealing that Welsh is unhappy around other people. The scene highlights Witt's devotion to the spark of light and glory he sees in people, even in death. Judge Advocate Generals Corps, also known as JAG, can refer to the judicial arm of any of the United States armed forces, consisting of autonomous departments in the Air Force, Army, United States Coast Guard and Navy. ... For other uses, see Washington, D.C. (disambiguation). ...

The unit is sent out on another mission further into the interior of the island. Witt and two other men are sent out but find that their unit is heavily outnumbered and must retreat, however, getting word back to Lt. Band (replacing Staros as the Company Commander) will be difficult since they are surrounded. Witt decides to act as a decoy and lure the Japanese away from his two companions and the rest of their unit. He is quickly found by the Japanese and, in the course of retreating, is surrounded. As the Japanese move in to capture him, he raises his rifle and is instantly shot. The unit later finds his body and buries it on the island. The film ends with another new commanding officer (George Clooney) taking over C Company, and the campaign coming to a close with the unit boarding transport ships to leave the island. George Timothy Clooney (May 6, 1961) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter who gained fame as one of the lead doctors in the long-running television drama, ER (1994â€“99), but is best known for his subsequent rise as an A-List movie star in contemporary American cinema. ...

Adaptation

There are numerous differences between Malick's film and Jones's novel. The novel makes no mention of the native inhabitants of Guadalcanal, whereas Malick depicts them throughout. In the film, Captain Staros is a Greek-American, in the novel this character was a Jewish Captain called Stein (a continuation using a different name of a similar character in From Here to Eternity). In the novel, the last rank of Private Gordon Bell is Lieutenant Gordon Bell. He received a commission during the campaign. Most of the other main characters are also promoted into NCO positions or higher. There are entire segments of dialogue and character interaction, such as Witt's interrogation by Sergeant Welsh, that are taken directly from the James Jones novel From Here to Eternity. In the film, a character called Queen carries a shotgun; in the novel, this character is called Cash, and Queen is a different character.

Production

Screenplay

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. The filmmaker declined and instead proposed a touring circus that would present the story of John Merrick."^[1] In 1988, New York based producers Bobby 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. The director declined but told them that he would be willing instead to write either an adaptation of Molière's Tartuffe or of The Thin Red Line. The producers chose the latter and paid Malick $250,000 to write a screenplay. David William Rabe (born March 10, 1940 in Dubuque, Iowa) is an American playwright and screenwriter. ... John Merrick may refer to: John Merrick (insurance) (1859â€“1919), African American founder of North Carolina Mutual and Provident Insurance Company in Durham, North Carolina John Merrick (actor) (born c. ... This article is about the capital of France. ... Donald Michael Thomas, known as D. M. Thomas (1935-), is an English novelist, poet, and translator. ... The White Hotel (ISBN 0-14-023173-0) is a novel written by the English poet, translator and novelist D. M. Thomas. ... MoliÃ¨re, engraved on the frontispiece to his Works. ... For the film of the same name, see Tartuffe (film) Tartuffe is a comedy by MoliÃ¨re, and arguably his most famous play. ... Sample from a screenplay, showing dialogue and action descriptions. ...

Malick began adapting The Thin Red Line on January 1, 1989. Five months later, the producers received his first draft that was 300 pages in length. According to an article in Entertainment Weekly magazine, they gained the director's confidence by "catering to his every whim,"^[2] providing him with obscure research material, including a book titled Reptiles and Amphibians of Australia, an audiotape of Kodo: Heartbeat Drummers of Japan, information on the Navaho code talkers enlisted by the US Army to communicate in their native Navaho language in case Japanese troops intercepted radio transmissions, making his travel plans and helping the director and his wife Michele get a mortgage for their Paris apartment.^[1] is the 1st day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1989 (MCMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link displays 1989 Gregorian calendar). ... Entertainment Weekly (sometimes abbreviated EW) is a magazine published by Time Inc. ... KodÅ is one of the most elite taiko drumming groups today. ... The Navajo (also Navaho) people of the southwestern United States call themselves the DinÃ© (pronounced ), which roughly means the people. They speak the Navajo language, and many are members of the Navajo Nation, an independent government structure which manages the Navajo reservation in the Four Cs area of the United... Page one of Navajo recommendation letter, 1942. ... The Army is the branch of the United States armed forces which has primary responsibility for land-based military operations. ... Navajo (Diné bizaad) (occasionally spelled Navaho) is a Southern Athabaskan or Apachean language of the Athabaskan language family, belonging to the Na-Dené phylum. ...

The producers spent a lot of time talking with Malick about his vision of the film. According to Peter Biskind's December 1998 article in Vanity Fair magazine, Geisler said, "Malick's Guadalcanal would be a Paradise Lost, an Eden, raped by the green poison, as Terry used to call it, of war. Much of the violence was to be portrayed indirectly. A soldier is shot, but rather than showing a Spielbergian bloody face we see a tree explode, the shredded vegetation, and a gorgeous bird with a broken wing flying out of a tree." The finished film does not contain any sequences exactly like this, but the battle scenes do contain intercutting between images of violence and images of nature. Peter Biskind is a journalist and author famous for some of his entertaining and provocative portrayals of life in Hollywood in books like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and-Rock N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood, Down and Dirty Pictures: Miramax, Sundance, and the Rise of Independent Film... 1998 is a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ... American actress Demi Moore, on a typical Vanity Fair cover (August, 1991) Vanity Fair is a glossy American glamour magazine monthly that offers a mixture of articles based on sensational exaggerations, jet-set and entertainment-business personalities, politics, and lies. ... For other uses, see Paradise Lost (disambiguation). ... For other uses, see Garden of Eden (disambiguation). ... Steven Spielberg (born December 18, 1946)[1] is an American film director and producer. ...

Malick spent years working on other projects, including a stage production of Sansho the Bailiff and a script known as The English-Speaker, spending $2 million of the producers' money, half of which for writing. By January 1995, they were broke and pressured Malick to decide which one he would complete. They approached Malick's former agent, Mike Medavoy who was setting up his own production company, Phoenix Pictures, and he agreed to give them $100,000 to start work on The Thin Red Line. Medavoy had a deal with Sony Pictures but its chairman, John Calley, didn't think Malick could make his movie with the proposed $52 million budget and dropped the project in the Spring of 1997, three months before filming. The director traveled to Los Angeles to pitch the project to 20th Century Fox who agreed with the stipulation that he cast five movie stars from a list of ten who were interested. Sansho the Bailiff (å±±æ¤’å¤§å¤« SanshÅ DayÅ«) is a 1954 film by Japanese film director Kenji Mizoguchi. ... Morris Mike Medavoy (born January 21, 1941, Shanghai ghetto, China) is an American film producer and executive, co-founder of Orion Pictures, former chairman of TriStar Pictures and current chairman and CEO of Phoenix Pictures. ... Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE) is the television and film production unit of Japan-based corporate giant Sony. ... Flag Seal Nickname: City of Angels Location Location within Los Angeles County in the state of California Coordinates , Government State County California Los Angeles County Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (D) Geographical characteristics Area City 1,290. ... Twentieth (20th) Century Fox Film Corporation (known from 1935 to 1985 as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation) is one of the six major American film studios. ...

Casting

When Sean Penn met Malick he famously told him, "Give me a dollar and tell me where to show up."^[2] Scripts were also sent to Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall and Tom Cruise. In 1995, once word went out that Malick was making another movie after many years, numerous actors approached him. According to The Telegraph, he staged a reading with Martin Sheen delivering the screen directions, and Kevin Costner, Will Patton, Peter Berg, Lukas Haas and Dermot Mulroney playing the main roles, in March of 1995 at Medavoy's home. In June of that year, a five-day workshop was scheduled at Medavoy's with Brad Pitt dropping by and culminated with Malick putting on the soundtrack of Where Eagles Dare and playing Japanese Kodo drums. Malick even met with Johnny Depp at the Book Soup Bistro on the Sunset Strip. Image File history File links CaviezielTheThinRedLine. ... Image File history File links CaviezielTheThinRedLine. ... James Patrick Caviezel, Jr. ... Robert De Niro in 1988 Robert De Niro (born August 17, 1943) is a two-time Academy Award and Golden Globe-winning American film actor, director, and producer. ... Robert Selden Duvall (born January 5, 1931) is an Academy Award and four-time Golden Globe winning American film actor and director. ... Tom Cruise (born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV on July 3, 1962) is an Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe Award-winning American actor and film producer. ... Martin Sheen (born August 3, 1940) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor. ... Kevin Michael Costner (born January 18, 1955) is an American film actor, director and producer. ... Will Patton (born June 14, 1954) is an American actor. ... Peter Berg (born March 11, 1964 in New York City) is an American actor and film director. ... Lukas Haas (born Lucas D. Haas on April 16, 1976) is an American actor. ... Dermot Mulroney (born October 31, 1963) is an American actor of Irish descent. ... William Bradley Brad Pitt(born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. ... Where Eagles Dare is a 1968 film directed by Brian G. Hutton and starring Richard Burton, Clint Eastwood, and Mary Ure. ... Johnny Depp (born John Christopher Depp II[2] on June 9, 1963, in Owensboro, Kentucky) is an Academy Award-nominated and SAG Awards-winning American actor and for his performances in the films Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Edward Scissorhands (1990), Whats Eating Gilbert Grape (1993), Ed Wood (1994... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

Edward Norton flew out to Austin and met Malick, who had been impressed by the actor's screen test for Primal Fear. Matthew McConaughey reportedly took a day off filming A Time to Kill to see Malick. Others followed, including William Baldwin, Edward Burns, and Leonardo DiCaprio who flew up from the Mexico set of Romeo + Juliet to meet Malick at the American Airlines lounge in the Austin airport.^[1] Before the casting was finalized, Nicolas Cage had lunch with Malick in Hollywood in February 1996. The director went off to scout locations and tried calling the actor that summer only to find out that his phone number had been disconnected. Malick felt insulted and refused to even consider Cage for a part.^[1] Malick told Tom Sizemore that he wanted him for a role in his film and the actor agreed. However, Sizemore was offered a more substantial role in Saving Private Ryan and when he couldn't contact Malick for several days, decided to do Steven Spielberg's film instead.^[1] Edward Harrison Norton[1] (born August 18, 1969) is a two-time Academy Award-nominated, Golden Globe-winning American film actor and director. ... Primal Fear is a 1996 motion picture which tells a story of a defense attorney (Richard Gere) who defends an altar boy (Edward Norton) charged with the murder of a Catholic archbishop. ... Matthew David McConaughey (born November 4, 1969) is an American actor. ... For other uses, see Time to Kill (disambiguation) For the 1996 film, see A Time to Kill (film) A Time to Kill is the name of a legal suspense thriller authored by John Grisham in 1989. ... William Billy Baldwin (born February 21, 1963 in Massapequa, New York) is an American actor best known for his early starring roles in such films as Backdraft (1991) and Flatliners (1990). ... Edward Burns Jr. ... Leonardo Wilhelm DiCaprio (born November 11 1974[1]) is a three-time Academy Award-nominated and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor who garnered world wide fame for his role as Jack Dawson in Titanic. ... William Shakespeares Romeo + Juliet is a 1996 American film adaptation of William Shakespeares play Romeo and Juliet. ... American Airlines, Inc. ... Nicolas Cage (born January 7, 1964) is an Academy Award-winning American actor. ... ... Thomas Edward Sizemore Jr. ... Saving Private Ryan is a 1998 Academy-Award-winning film set in World War II, directed by Steven Spielberg and written by Robert Rodat. ... Steven Spielberg (born December 18, 1946)[1] is an American film director and producer. ...

To appease the studio, Malick cast George Clooney in a small role and Geisler remembers, "Terry was worried that having a big star like Clooney play a character who enters the film near the end would be distracting."^[2] James Caviezel, who was cast as Private Witt and later went on to fame after portraying Jesus Christ in The Passion of the Christ, credits Malick's casting of him as the turning point in his career.^[3] George Timothy Clooney (May 6, 1961) is an American actor, director, producer and screenwriter who gained fame as one of the lead doctors in the long-running television drama, ER (1994â€“99), but is best known for his subsequent rise as an A-List movie star in contemporary American cinema. ... James Patrick Caviezel, Jr. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... This article is about the film. ...

Principal photography

According to Biskind's article, pre-production went slowly as Malick had a hard time making decisions. Weeks before filming began, Malick told Geisler and Roberdeau not to show up in Australia where the film was being made because George Stevens Jr. would be the on-location producer supporting line producer Grant Hill. Malick told them that they had upset the studio for refusing to give up above-the-title production credit to Stevens. However, he didn't tell them that in 1996 he had a clause inserted in his contract barring the producers from the set.^[2] Geisler and Roberdeau were mystified about this behavior with Geisler telling Entertainment Weekly, "I didn't think he was capable of betrayal of this magnitude."^[2] Grant Hill is the name of both an American athlete and a Canadian politician. ...

The movie was filmed predominantly in the Daintree Rainforest in north Queensland, Australia. The soldiers firing the number two and three M2A2 artillery guns from the fire support base were actual serving members of 1st Field Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery. Filming also took place on Dancer mountain which had such rough terrain that trailers and production trucks couldn't make it up the hill. A base camp was set up at its base and roads carved out of the mountain. Transporting 250 actors and 200 crew members up the hill took two hours. Malick's unconventional filming techniques included shooting part of a scene during a bright, sunny morning only to finish it weeks later at sunset. He shot for 100 days in Australia, 24 in the Solomon Islands and three in the United States. The decision not to shoot on the island of Guadalcanal was a practical one. It has a 50% rate of malaria and it lacked logistical feasibility. As director of photography John Toll said, "It's still a bit difficult to get on and off the island, and we had some scenes that involved 200 or 300 extras. We would have had to bring everybody to Guadalcanal, and financially it just didn't make sense."^[4] Malick finished on time and on budget. The Daintree Rainforest The rainforest stradles Cape Tribulation The Daintree Rainforest is a tropical but fucked up rainforest near Daintree, Queensland, on the coast, north of Cairns in tropical far north of Australia. ... Motto: Audax at Fidelis (Bold but Faithful) Other Australian states and territories Capital Brisbane Governor HE Ms Quentin Bryce Premier Peter Beattie (ALP) Area 1,852,642 km² (2st) - Land 1,730,648 km² - Water 121,994 km² (6. ... UBIQUE (Everywhere) and QUO FAS ET GLORIA DUCUNT (Whither Right And Glory Lead) The Royal Regiment of Australian Artillery is descended from the original colonial artillery units prior to Australias federation. ... Malaria is a vector-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites. ... A cinematographer (from cinema photographer) is one photographing with a motion picture camera. ... John Toll is an American cinematographer born in Cleveland, Ohio. ...

In addition to the cast seen in the final cut of the film, Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman, Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas, Viggo Mortensen and Mickey Rourke also performed, but their scenes were eventually cut. Reportedly, the first assembled cut took seven months to edit and ran three and half hours, with Thornton contributing three hours of narrative voice-over material.^[2] Geisler and Roberdeau told their story to Vanity Fair magazine and Medavoy's attornies declared them in breach of contract and threatened to remove their names from the film unless they agreed to do no future interviews until after the Academy Awards. Billy Bob Thornton[1] (born August 4, 1955) is an Academy Award-winning American screenwriter, actor, as well as occasional director, playwright and singer. ... Martin Sheen (born August 3, 1940) is an Emmy- and Golden Globe Award-winning American actor. ... Leonard Gary Oldman (born March 21, 1958) is an English actor, writer and director who initially came to prominence for his portrayal of Sid Vicious in the 1986 film Sid & Nancy. ... William Pullman (born December 17, 1953) is an American film and television actor. ... Lukas Haas (born Lucas D. Haas on April 16, 1976) is an American actor. ... Viggo Peter Mortensen, Jr. ... Mickey Rourke (born September 16, 1956) is an American actor who has primarily appeared in drama, action, and thriller films. ... Although he never won an Oscar for any of his movie performances, the comedian Bob Hope received two honorary Oscars for his contributions to cinema. ...

The editing also resulted in many of the well-known cast members being on screen for only a brief period: for example, John Travolta and George Clooney's appearances are little more than cameos, yet Clooney's name appears prominently in the marketing of the movie. The unfinished film was screened for the New York press on December 1998 and Adrien Brody attended a screening to find that his originally significant role, "to carry the movie" as he put it, had been reduced to two lines and approximately five minutes of screen time.^[5] Malick was upset that the studio screened his unfinished version for critics and Penn ended up helping him in the editing room, shaping the final version.^[2] Malick spent three more months and cut 45 additional minutes from the film. A cameo role or cameo appearance (often shortened to just cameo) is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television. ...

Soundtrack

Hans Zimmer composed the score for the film, with John Powell and Francesco Lupica providing additional music. Hans Florian Zimmer (born September 12, 1957) is an Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe award-winning film score composer from Germany. ... For the geologist and U.S. explorer, see John Wesley Powell, for the Mayor of Toronto see John Powell (politician). ...

An additional CD, titled "Melanesian Choirs: The Blessed Islands - Chants from The Thin Red Line" is also available.

Reaction

Criticism

Although the film has been praised in some circles for placing a human face on the Japanese military, there is some concern that this was done at the expense of historical accuracy. In reality, very few Japanese soldiers were taken captive on Guadalcanal and even fewer surrendered willingly during the active phase of the campaign. This was in keeping with the official policies of the Imperial Japanese Army, the Bushido code, and a growing belief among senior US commanders that attempting to take prisoners would present an excessive amount of danger. Of the estimated 36,200 Japanese troops which fought on Guadalcanal, only an approximate 1,000 were taken captive before the island was declared secure on February 9, 1943. Nearly 30,000 Japanese troops lost their lives in the campaign.^{[citation needed]} The Imperial Japanese Army (IJA) (KyÅ«jitai: å¤§æ—¥æœ¬å¸åœ‹é™¸è», Shinjitai: , Romaji: Dai-Nippon Teikoku Rikugun), or more officially Army of the Greater Japanese Empire was the official ground based armed force of Imperial Japan from 1867 to 1945. ... Japanese samurai in armor, 1860s. ...

Another historical inaccuracy is the use of a modern Australian L126 Balikpapan class landingcraft (the L129 HMAS Tarakan) in the scene where the US soldiers leave the island.. HMAS Brunei on the hardstand in Dili harbour Australian Army M-113 armoured personnel carriers land from a LCH during an exercise in 2001 The Balikpapan class LCH (Landing Craft, Heavy) were originally a class of eight vessels built for the Australian Army. ...

Responses

On its opening weekend, The Thin Red Line grossed $282,534 in five theaters in limited release. Once it opened wide, in 1,528 theaters, it grossed $9,765,762 in one weekend. Its total North American gross is $36,400,491, well below its $52 million budget.^[6]

Critical responses were generally strong. Currently, the film has a rating of 79% on Rotten Tomatoes (95% for their "Cream of the Crop" designation). Roger Ebert gave it three stars, saying that it felt confused and unfinished, but was "fascinating... The battle scenes themselves are masterful, in creating a sense of the geography of a particular hill, the way it is defended by Japanese bunkers, the ways in which the American soldiers attempt to take it... Actors like Sean Penn, John Cusack, Jim Caviezel and Ben Chaplin find the perfect tone for scenes of a few seconds or a minute, and then are dropped before a rhythm can be established."^[7] This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ...

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. It was awarded the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin Film Festival for 1999. Academy Award The Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars, are the most prominent and most watched film awards ceremony in the world. ... Charles Rosher the first recipient in 1928 The Academy Award for Best Cinematography is awarded each year to a cinematographer for his work in one particular motion picture. ... The Academy Award for Directing is one of the awards given to directors working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. ... The Academy Award for Film Editing was first given for films issued in 1934. ... The Academy Award for Original Music Score is presented to the best substantial body of music in the form of dramatic underscoring written specifically for the film by the submitting composer. ... // The Academy Award for Best Motion Picture is one of the Academy Awards, awards given to people working in the motion picture industry by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which are voted on by others within the industry. ... The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most aesthetic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. ... The Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay is one of the Academy Awards, the most prominent film awards in the United States. ... The Berlin International Film Festival, also called the Berlinale, is one of the most important film festivals in Europe and the world. ...

This is one of Martin Scorsese's favorite films of the 1990s, as told on Roger Ebert's television show; he ranked it at #2. Martin Marcantonio Luciano Scorsese (IPA: AmE: ; Ita: []) (born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, writer and producer and founder of the World Cinema Foundation. ... Roger Joseph Ebert (born June 18, 1942) is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American film critic. ...

References

For other uses, see The Face (disambiguation). ... Entertainment Weekly (sometimes abbreviated EW) is a magazine published by Time Inc. ... Interview is a magazine founded by artist Andy Warhol and Gerard Malanga in 1969. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 131st day of the year (132nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... American Cinematographer is a monthly journal published by the American Society of Cinematographers. ... For other uses, see The Independent (disambiguation). ... is the 111th day of the year (112th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2001 (MMI) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 2001 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago. ... is the 8th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about the year. ... Year 2007 (MMVII) is the current year, a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar and the AD/CE era in the 21st century. ... is the 292nd day of the year (293rd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | 1998 films | American films | World War II films | Film remakes Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Wikiquote is one of a family of wiki-based projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation, running on MediaWiki software. ... The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) is an online database of information about movies, actors, television shows, production crew personnel, and video games. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Metacritic is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows, DVDs and books. ... All Movie Guide is a commercial database of information about movie stars, movies and television shows. ... Simon Critchley is a British philosopher, working in Continental philosophy and related fields. ... Terrence Terry Malick (born November 30, 1943 in Waco, Texas) is an Assyrian American film director. ... Badlands is a 1973 film directed by Terrence Malick from his own script. ... Days of Heaven is a 1978 film written and directed by Terrence Malick and starring Richard Gere, Brooke Adams, Sam Shepard and Linda Manz. ... The New World is a 2005 Academy Award-nominated drama / romance film directed by Terrence Malick. ... Central Station (Portuguese: Central do Brasil) is a 1998 drama film set in Brazil about a young boys friendship with a jaded middle-aged woman. ... One of the A festivals in Europe. ... Magnolia is a 1999 drama film, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. ...

Contents

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