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The Thin Red Line

7.1

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Original title

The Thin Red Line

Year

1998

Running time

163 min.

Country

United States

Director

Terrence Malick

Screenwriter

Terrence Malick. Novel: James Jones

Cast

Music

Hans Zimmer

Cinematography

John Toll

Producer

20th Century Fox, Phoenix Pictures

Genre

War | II World War. Army. 1940s

Movie Groups

James Jones Adaptations

Synopsis

1942, Guadalcanal. US soldiers land on the island, hoping to take it back from the Japanese. At first, they encounter no resistance. C for Charlie company ventures into the jungle, discovering the corpses of some colleagues who've gone before them. Their progress is halted and they sustain many losses when they attempt to climb a hill heavily fortified by the Japanese. Lt Colonel Tall is adamant that they must take the hill, but Captain Staros is reluctant to commit his men on a mission he fears will kill many unnecessarily so he disobeys Tall's order. A powerful all star cast explodes into action in this hauntingly realistic view of military and moral chaos in the Pacific during World War II. Terrence Malick returns to the director's chair after a 20-year absence.

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Rankings Position

#94 Best War Movies/War Film
#99 Best Movies and TV Series about the Second World War

Awards: 1998: 7 Nominations for Oscar, including Best Director, Cinematography, OST, Movie

1998: Nominated for Cesar Awards: Best Foreign Language Picture

1998: Critics Circle of New York: Best Director & Best Cinematography

1999: Berlin Film Festival: Golden Bear and Honourable Mention (John Toll)

1998: Critics' Choice Awards: Nominated for Best Film

1998: Chicago Film Critics Awards: Best Director & Best Cinematography. 5 Nom.

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Critics' reviews

"A complex, highly talented work marked by intellectual and philosophical ambitions that will captivate some critics and serious viewers."

Todd McCarthy: Variety
"The movie's schizophrenia keeps it from greatness (this film has no firm idea of what it is about), but doesn't make it bad. It is, in fact, sort of fascinating (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 4)"

Roger Ebert: Chicago Sun-Times
"The film's cumulative impact has everything to do with mood, so that viewers may feel impatient at times -- only to realize hours later that they've seen something extraordinary."

Mick LaSalle: SFGATE
"'The Thin Red Line' has moments of grim oracular power, but they’re buried in a blur of grandiloquent vagueness."

Owen Gleiberman: Entertainment Weekly
"It can be called an anti-war film, but its disdain for the very conventions of the medium make it an anti-anti-war film."

Michael O'Sullivan: The Washington Post
"Stunning images couldn't make Days of Heaven a coherent dramatic whole, and they can't do it for The Thin Red Line."

Joe Morgenstern: The Wall Street Journal
"If it's an epic, it's an intimate, dream-time epic, an elliptical, episodic film, dependent on images and reveries, that treats war as the ultimate nightmare"

Kenneth Turan: Los Angeles Times

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Ranking Lists Position

8 My Favorite War Movies (477)
36 Underrated Movies (70)
52 My Favorites from the 90s (158)
83 Movies with Amazing Cinematography (48)
87 Movies I Want to Watch (old releases) (3113)
98 Movies I Liked More the Second Time I Watched Them (16)

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The Thin Red Line

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