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.
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
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
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
