Product Details

• Actors: James Caviezel, Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Kirk Acevedo, Penelope Allen
• Directors: Terrence Malick
• Writers: Terrence Malick, James Jones
• Producers: George Stevens Jr., Grant Hill, John Roberdeau, Michael Stevens, Robert Michael Geisler
• Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (DTS 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: May 21, 2002
• Run Time: 170 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (941 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00005221N
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,206 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #33 in	Movies & TV > Action & Adventure > Action Stars > George Clooney
  #63 in	Movies & TV > Military & War > Anti-War Films

• For more information about "The Thin Red Line - DTS" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

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

A powerful frontline cast - including Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson and George Clooney - explodes into action in this hauntingly realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Video Poetry, June 19, 2001

By A Customer

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. If you are after an easily accessable night in front of the boob tube, go for Private Ryan. If you'd like something to think about for months to come, spend a few hours with The Thin Red Line.

50 of 56 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very moving war film!, June 7, 2001

By	D. Litton (Wilmington, NC) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"The Thin Red Line" had the severe bad luck of being released in the shadow of one of the most favored modern war films of all time, "Saving Private Ryan." Oscar buzz was all the rage for that film, which focused on the war in Europe as well as patriotism and courage. "The Thin Red Line" chooses to focus more on the human beings at war than the country or mission for which they are fighting. It dives deep into the subconscious of its characters, exposing their feelings in the face of battle and carnage. Though heavily stylized, director Terrence Malick knows where the movie is going, and takes it there in stride.

Spanning a running time of just short of three hours, we're taken on a journey to Guadalcanal, where American troops are landing on the sandy beaches only to encounter a foe that, for a while, seems unbeatable. Their mission: to take over an airstrip and give America an advantage in the Pacific War. It is here that the characters are established: First Sergeant Welsh (Sean Penn), whose only wish is to lose all feeling for the events he experiences; Lt. Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte), obsessed more with his image than with actual victory; Private Witt (Jim Caviezel), a quiet, almost spiritual soldier with a soft yet firm heart; and Private Bell (Ben Chaplin), whose memories of his wife are what fuel his drive to fulfill his mission so he may return home.

Like "Ryan," this film has intense images of graphic violence associated with war and battle. While Malick does not use the same technique as Speilberg, whose film is gritty and never without unsteady camera shots, his slow-motion captures, cut to the powerful score of Hans Zimmer, are just as moving and powerful. Scenes that stick out in the mind are the Americans' capture of a Japanese bunker on a hill, while their raiding of an enemy camp is one of the most moving pieces of cinematic masterpiece I've ever seen in any film.

The second half of the film takes us to where the real focus of the movie has been all along. After their mission is accomplished, the regiment is given a week of rest, during which time each of the characters is given a chance to reflect on the experiences of the previous day. Some of them question their own existence in the face of such brutality, while others try to cope with the fact that they have committed murder. The movie is brilliant for its ability to separate one's feeling of victory with their latter realizations of the acts they have taken part in.

One right after another, the movie brings out unheard of emotions that will stir even the hardest of cynics and critics. The images of war, people crying out for help, breathing their last, and just the frenzied, frantic bravura of it all is deeply moving, one of the best war portrayals to date. The psychological examinations are also very heartfelt, establishing the soldiers as characters, and more than mere pawns in a game of war. Each of them has a monologue that plays during the movie, their thoughts and feelings put into poetry for the screen.

While the movie is particularly preferential in its choice of which characters deserve more screen time, the performances turned in by each actor are masterpieces in themselves. Penn is forceful as the hard yet movable Welsh, while Nolte is believably stern and unrelenting as Col. Tall. Ben Chaplin is perhaps the most emotional character, Private Bell, who is haunted by thoughts of his wife back home. And Caviezel is an incredible addition to the cast as Witt, whose simplistic view of the world sets the mood for some of the movie's most powerful scenes and monologues.

Even those not partial to war films may favor the grandeur and spectacle of "The Thin Red Line." A stirring war epic and an intense journey into the mind are swirled into an engrossing movie that tugs at the heartstrings with such a grip you have no choice but to go along with it.

54 of 65 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars the finest film of the 90's, March 15, 2000

By	josh brastad (Port Angeles, WA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Thin Red Line (DVD)

Possibly the most powerful dramatic genre of film, war movies are never ignored. And in this day and age war films have certain expectations to become sucessful and praiseworthy: they must have a clear and evil villian, they must have an ideal GI hero, they must be provided with a sentimental patriotic score (John Williams the masses salute you) and most importantly war films must pack reassurance, a way to incorporate that killing is necessary, that war shuts out tyranny, and delivers strength to a country. (It doesn't hurt to flat out say the film's dedication is to the American men who saved the USA and ended the holocaust...aka Mr. Spielberg). Terrence Malick's 1998 war film "The Thin Red Line" was a terrible box office flop. On a 60 million budget the film made barely 10 million at the box office. It was the shadow that never existed at the 98 Oscars and many professional critics included such supposed millionaire movie judges like Roger Ebert, dismissed the film. The answer is simple, I see it every time I'm around a wide body of people: the film never pounds any answers into our heads like most three hour films (such as the recents films of Darabout, Spielberg, Cameron) "Line" is an essay, a poem, filled with questions and theory. In short we, in our stress-induced mocha fueled, cell phone powered lives want to laugh, want to cry, want to lean our heads against our spouse, and dwell in reassurance at a movie. We don't want to question.. The Thin Red Line is an anti-thesis toward war, war films, and the modern day pace of living. The film begins with Private Witt, a AWOL-ed transcendentalist who has found heaven on earth in the form of life among the natives of the Solomon islands. In this life, Witt finds no fear, thus he discovers immortality; to give yourself and die without a fear in your soul. Already, without wide realization, Witt has become one of the most unforgettable screen characters. He is the most intriguing character in a war picture since Col. Kurtz of "Apocalypse Now" and Hollywood screenwriters such as "American Beauty's" Alan Ball have recognized Malick's creation (just look at "Beauty's" character Ricky Fitts and his strong resembalance to Witt). The fact that so many critics have called Thin Red Line character's unfocused and bland is truth that the philosopical aspect of film is dying. The characters in Line are all original (much unlike the cliche roles of Spielberg's "Ryan"). Pvt. Bell discovers that lust and desire are interpreted in many forms, as his hearts contentness fades when his wife explains she could not withstand the wait for his homecoming. Sgt. Welsh's lonliness is only unbalanced by his kindness as he realizes that the image of one man can make a difference. ("If I never meet you in this life, let me feel the lack. A glance from your eyes, and my life will be yours"). The confrontation between Col. Tall and Cpt. Staros give Malick's deliverance to Kubrick's "Paths of Glory" with his internal conflict between the soilder and the authoriy who orders death for the sake of ego. Possibly the greatest reason I award Malick's film as the decade's finest is because it's nothing short of revolutionary. It has much more in common with "2001: A Space Oddessy" than it does with "Saving Private Ryan" like most reviews compare. Both "2001" and Malick's film construct stances on humanity's present circumstance and idealism. Whereas "2001" stretched 50 years into the future to show how we destroy ourselves, "Thin Red" streches 50 years into the past. It poses the question: why do we fight one another? So simple a child could ask it, but no Harvard genius could even ponder to explain a right answer. Beyond all the polics and rich egoists, why do we even have enemies? Would the earth be a finer place without us? Does our ruin benefit the earth? In perhaps the most powerful cinematic scene of the 1990's American and Japanese soilders senselessly kill one another through fog, and destroy a village in mid-morning while many Japanese are having prayer. The battle is set to Hans Zimmer's detesting ballad "Silence". There are no heros no villians, just chaos coming to a climax. It ends with a brave monologue in the second person that speaks directly to the audience that clapped for "Ryan's" US GI's as they burned some Nazi's to death: "Is this darkness in you too?"