Terrence Malick

The Thin Red Line

The Thin Red Line

After directing two of the most extraordinary movies of the 1970s, Badlands and Days of Heaven, American artist Terrence Malick disappeared from the film world for twenty years, only to resurface in 1998 with this visionary adaptation of James Jones’s 1962 novel about the World War II battle for Guadalcanal. A big-budget, spectacularly mounted epic, The Thin Red Line is also one of the most deeply philosophical films ever released by a major Hollywood studio, a thought-provoking meditation on man, nature, and violence. Featuring a cast of contemporary cinema’s finest actors—Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, Elias Koteas, and Woody Harrelson among them—The Thin Red Line is a kaleidoscopic evocation of the experience of combat that ranks as one of the greatest war films ever produced.

Film Info

  • United States
  • 1998
  • 171 minutes
  • Color
  • 2.35:1
  • English
  • Spine #536

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Terrence Malick and cinematographer John Toll, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • New audio commentary by Toll, production designer Jack Fisk, and producer Grant Hill
  • Interviews with several of the film’s actors, including Kirk Acevedo, Jim Caviezel, Thomas Jane, Elias Koteas, Dash Mihok, and Sean Penn; composer Hans Zimmer; editors Billy Weber, Leslie Jones, and Saar Klein; and writer James Jones’s daughter Kaylie Jones
  • New interview with casting director Dianne Crittenden, featuring archival audition footage
  • Fourteen minutes of outtakes from the film
  • World War II newsreels from Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands
  • Melanesian chants
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by film critic David Sterritt and a 1963 reprint by James Jones

New cover by Neil Kellerhouse

Purchase Options

DIRECTOR-APPROVED BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Terrence Malick and cinematographer John Toll, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
  • New audio commentary by Toll, production designer Jack Fisk, and producer Grant Hill
  • Interviews with several of the film’s actors, including Kirk Acevedo, Jim Caviezel, Thomas Jane, Elias Koteas, Dash Mihok, and Sean Penn; composer Hans Zimmer; editors Billy Weber, Leslie Jones, and Saar Klein; and writer James Jones’s daughter Kaylie Jones
  • New interview with casting director Dianne Crittenden, featuring archival audition footage
  • Fourteen minutes of outtakes from the film
  • World War II newsreels from Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands
  • Melanesian chants
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
  • PLUS: A new essay by film critic David Sterritt and a 1963 reprint by James Jones

New cover by Neil Kellerhouse

The Thin Red Line
Cast
Sean Penn
1st Sgt. Edward Welsh
Adrien Brody
Cpl. Fife
Jim Caviezel
Pvt. Witt
Ben Chaplin
Pvt. Bell
George Clooney
Capt. Charles Bosche
John Cusack
Capt. John Gaff
Woody Harrelson
Sgt. Keck
Elias Koteas
Capt. James “Bugger” Staros
Jared Leto
2nd Lt. Whyte
Dash Mihok
Pfc. Doll
Tim Blake Nelson
Pvt. Tillis
Nick Nolte
Lt. Col. Gordon Tall
John C. Reilly
Sgt. Storm
Larry Romano
Pvt. Mazzi
John Savage
Sgt. McCron
John Travolta
Brig. Gen. Quintard
Arie Verveen
Pvt. Charlie Dale
Credits
Director
Terrence Malick
Screenplay
Terrence Malick
Based on the novel by
James Jones
Producer
Robert Michael Geisler
Producer
John Roberdeau
Producer
Grant Hill
Executive producer
George Stevens Jr.
Director of photography
John Toll
Production designer
Jack Fisk
Editing
Billy Weber
Editing
Leslie Jones
Editing
Saar Klein
Casting
Dianne Crittenden
Music
Hans Zimmer
Costume designer
Margot Wilson
Associate producer
Michael Stevens
First assistant director
Skip Cosper
Art direction
Ian Gracie
Production manager
Vicki Popplewell

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