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The Thin Red Line (The Criterion Collection) (1998)

Sean Penn , Adrien Brody , Terrence Malick  |  R |  DVD
3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,015 customer reviews)

List Price: $29.95
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Blu-ray The Criterion Collection $19.99  
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Product Details

  • Actors: Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, James Caviezel, George Clooney, John Cusack
  • Directors: Terrence Malick
  • Format: Color, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen
  • Language: English
  • Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
  • Number of discs: 2
  • Rated: R (Restricted)
  • Studio: Criterion Collection
  • DVD Release Date: September 28, 2010
  • Run Time: 170 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,015 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B003KGBIR0
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,396 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
  • Learn more about "The Thin Red Line (The Criterion Collection)" on IMDb

Special Features

None.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

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

Product Description

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 (Dead Man Walking, Milk), Nick Nolte (The Prince of Tides, Affliction), Elias Koteas (Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers, The People vs. Larry Flynt) among them—THE THIN RED LINE is a kaleidoscopic evocation of the experience of combat that ranks as one of cinema’s greatest war films.

Customer Reviews

The Thin Red Line was very boring and just wasn't interesting. sauerkraut  |  85 reviewers made a similar statement
I know I'm being exceptionally cruel but I just didn't like this movie. General Pete  |  85 reviewers made a similar statement
Terrence Malick with this film become one of the most profound directors of our time. Dmitry Danilov  |  119 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
184 of 205 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Video Poetry June 19, 2001
By A Customer
Format:DVD
The same week I saw 'Saving Private Ryan', I saw 'The Thin Red Line'. I left the theater both times with the same reflective shock; silent for the drive home despite the questioning of my friends. In hindsight, I could have told you who would say what about these two films. 'Ryan' would attain wide commercial success, and 'Line' would be missed. Most, including anyone who reviews this film poorly, did not get it. This film is Video Poetry. In the same way that e.e. cummings would capitalize the letters R O U N and D through that wonderful poem about the round moon, the director laces the obvious bits of typical film (dialogue, acting) with constant thematic visual reinforcement. Man and nature are compared and contrasted. Just watch as the sun catches the blowing grasses in spectacular fashion before the field becomes a massacre. Our aims as a socitey are impeached. See the change in attitude between the native people and the formerly AWOL soldiers. There is an ugliness about it that you cannot help but feel. Something is intuitively wrong with everything going on, and the subtle suggestion of this fact is presented with difinitive dilligence. The sleeper of this film is the masterfully placed musical score- seamlessly woven through the fabric of tension and release- sometimes a backdrop, sometimes running thick over the dramatic action for reinforcement. Go buy the CDs- both are fantastic! I cannot believe that every soldier hazards the thoughts expressed in this film. Nor would I suppose it impossible that some in fact did. The war, however, is simply a device for the expression of some very valid points. If it makes you reconsider your preconceptions of what goes on in GI Joe's mind, all the better.... Read more ›
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110 of 124 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Criterion hits it out of the park with this Blu-Ray September 30, 2010
Format:Blu-ray|Amazon Verified Purchase
I already loved the film, so waited so patiently for Criterion to come out, as it simply HAD to come out, with a definitive edition. I read and posted on the various fora, sent the emails, re-tweeted the enigmatic and happy Twitpic that Criterion posted, jumped all over the Criterion newsletter when they came out with their gnomic icon confirmation. I got the Blu-Ray the day it dropped, and have spent the subsequent couple days in a kind of reverie. I just watched the film -- which is, full stop for effect, absolutely STUNNING in Blu-Ray. Every technical aspect, from the color to the surround-sound (I so love the use of Charles Ives' "The Unanswered Question" in the middle of a battlefield atrocity), is reference-quality AWESOME. I've yet to experience the commentary, but I've watched the insightful feature on James Jones and the novel from his daughter and listened to the chants; there's still the 15 deleted scenes and the wartime newsreels on Guadalcanal to go through, plus some other extras I'm sure. The essay is wonderful. If you think you experienced a religious ecstasy the first time you saw The Thin Red Line, just experience it again on this Criterion Blu-Ray and undergo true cinematic rapture.

** UPDATE ** I've watched all of the extra features, which are uniformly insightful and superb.

Commentary: This is by cinematographer John Toll, production designer Jack Fisk, and producer Grant Hill. Criterion commentaries are usually of three breeds, I find: hit-or-miss commentaries by film scholars (Peter Cowie's Bergman commentaries would be hits, the dull "you see the door in that shot?
... Read more ›
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48 of 53 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars War is hell, not heaven December 13, 2003
Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase
I saw this movie at the theaters when it was first released in 1999, and have watched it several more times on DVD, and own a DVD version of my own. I'm writing only to bring some balance to the polarized reviews I've read on this website. People who compare "Saving Private Ryan" and "Thin Red Line" and conclude by praising one and panning the other (it doesn't even matter which) are clearly missing the point of BOTH movies. Malick's film is almost an allegory...a visual and sensual evocation of both primitive and profound human feelings. I doubt that it was ever Malick's purpose to deal with war per se, other than as a medium to expose the inner heart of man. When I have enjoyed watching "Thin Red Line" the most, I have watched with that expectation. If you're in the mood for bare-bones war, however, this film won't satisfy. "Saving Private Ryan", while certainly also portraying the human emotions involved with war (most brilliantly and realistically, fear), was more concerned with gritty realism. The cinematography contrasts between the two movies alone ought to tell the viewer what he is in for. Malick's film is almost surrealistic in its imagery- "Private Ryan" has the gritty realism of a documentary. Both methods have an undeniable effect.
For my money, however, "Private Ryan" is what most people look for in a war film. "Thin Red Line" certainly conveys the inner personal anguish, doubt, fear, and even savagery of its combatants, but it doesn't show the real, external face of war.
But please, folks, don't delude the readers with the idea that one of these two films is "better" than the other. They both have their respectful place in moviemaking about war.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Good Story and Action
I happen to really like war movies. Think it was b/c my father was in WWII. Anyway, this movie is long but has a good story and lots of action. Loved it.
Published 11 days ago by Claire Miller
3.0 out of 5 stars Movie Good; Delivery Bad
The movie and its display was very good. It is thought provoking, has character development and excellent acting. Read more
Published 20 days ago by gcdyer
5.0 out of 5 stars Listen.
When my Mother passed away, it was a shock, and I was very confused and frightened. I had no idea how to handle it or how I was even supposed to feel. Read more
Published 29 days ago by Filmaholics Anyonymous
5.0 out of 5 stars This may be the movie where the world discovered Jim Caviezel!
There are a lot of big name actors in this movie who wind up playing small parts. Kudos to the Director who wound up leaving a lot of film on the cutting room floor to focus on... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Poet5747
3.0 out of 5 stars three stars
good movie-if you like old timey-amazon needs to get newer movies.this is a good movie to watch if there is nothing else on tv-like i said -it is good. Read more
Published 1 month ago by billg629
3.0 out of 5 stars What might have been an epic film was cut until it lacks cohesion, and...
The circumstances around Terence Malick's THE THIN RED LINE are sometimes more talked about than the film itself. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Christopher Culver
5.0 out of 5 stars CRITERION'S FLAWLESS EDITION
CRITERION'S EDITION COULD REALLY BE CALLED FLAWLESS IN AN ERA LIKE NOW, AND I NEVER THOUGHT THERE WOULD BE ANY MALICK'S MOVIES MORE UNDERSTANDABLE AND TOUCHING LIKE THIS. Read more
Published 2 months ago by HAN XIAO
5.0 out of 5 stars An experience
This is one of those movies where I hope today's generation drunk on crappy remakes, crappy reboots, gravity defying action soul crushing action flicks really takes a critical look... Read more
Published 2 months ago by A. Joseph Orlando
3.0 out of 5 stars Download didn't work!
I thought this would be an inexpensive, efficient way to have this movie for viewing...once. Didn't work. Couldn't pull it up to view.
Published 3 months ago by Dirk T. Metzger
3.0 out of 5 stars Decent WWII film that suffers from bad pacing
This movie tells a fictionalized account of the Battle of Mount Austen. It has some memorable scenes and a five star cast but it suffers from uneven pacing that prevents it from... Read more
Published 4 months ago by anonymous rogue
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1) The City of Lost Children (NOT DUBBED! - original language-dub sucks)
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May 26, 2010 by nightshade |  See all 12 posts
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