War, Humanity, and Nature in Terrence Malick's the Thin Red Line

MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF ARTS Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Robert Krátký War, Humanity, and Nature in The Thin Red Line by Terrence Malick MASTER’S DIPLOMA THESIS Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D. 2017 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the Works Cited section. ........................................ Robert Krátký ii I would like to thank my supervisor, Stephen Paul Hardy, Ph.D., for his encouragement and guidance. iii Table of Contents 1 Introduction ...................................1 2 The Thin Red Line ................................ 11 2.1 Novel by James Jones . 13 2.2 1964 Film Adaptation . 22 3 Terrence Malick’s Filmography ........................ 28 4 The Thin Red Line by Terrence Malick .................... 52 4.1 War Film? . 56 4.2 The Role of Nature . 64 4.2.1 Malick on the Set . 67 4.2.2 Voice-Over Narrative . 71 4.2.3 War, Humanity, and Nature . 76 5 Conclusion .................................... 82 Works Cited . 86 Works Consulted but not Cited . 91 iv 1 Introduction The Thin Red Line, directed by Terrence Malick and released to great expectations and mixed reactions in 1998, is a multifaceted film that—despite its ostentatious war theme—defies genre categorization. For some, the contemplative realization of the film’s narration, its length, and the lack of a clear storyline are all evidence of a failed attempt at a ‘war movie’. For others, the film, with its philosophical musings, mesmerizing imagery, and strong anti-war message is a masterpiece and a worthy successor to Malick’s critically acclaimed first two films from the 1970s—Badlands and Days of Heaven. This thesis explores the critical reception and interpretation of the film’s three main motifs: war, humanity, and nature—as well as the way the director works with them. The chief aim is to interpret the film with regard to these three themes—which collide as well as coexist in the director’s vision. While existing research provides a wealth of information about how Malick works with each of these elements, this thesis expands on that by postulating that Malick uses the combination of these themes (and the ways they are portrayed) to carry the main message of the work. In doing so, the thesis offers a clearly articulated critique of Malick’s intent and its artistic realization, thus contributing to the body of research about the film as well as its director. As the thesis is primarily concerned with the review of a film material (related literary works are mostly considered in a supporting role), it employs a number of critical approaches towards interpreting its subject of study. In ad- dition to exploring the technical aspects of the film’s cinematography, the thesis also concentrates on the director’s mise-en-scène work. While the thesis does not overlook the narrative features of the film, for which a topic-based and—to a degree—structural approach is employed, its main attention is focused on an 1 1 INTRODUCTION iconic interpretation of both picture and sound. To that end, the thesis considers a number of critical and academic sources that examine both The Thin Red Line and Terrence Malick, the person and director, in order to ground the discussion in existing research material. The postulations and conclusions about Malick’s treatment of the ‘war, humanity, nature’ trio of motifs presented by this thesis draw on the consulted secondary sources and uti- lize them both to support the thesis’ observations as well as to identify differences in the manner the film has been perceived by various critics and scholars. To complement the main content and to establish historical, literary, and film-making context for the subject matter of the study, this “Introduction” is followed by a chapter that discusses a number of other literary and film works that pertain to The Thin Red Line. Most notably, it provides a concise introduction to the eponymous novel by James Jones that the film was based on, as well as an overview of Jones’ other literary works that focus on the Second World War, with a particular emphasis on From Here to Eternity, which—together with The Thin Red Line and Whistle—form Jones’ World War II trilogy. The next part of the chapter continues by offering a comparison of Ma- lick’s The Thin Red Line from 1998 with the earlier film adaptation of the same name (directed by Andrew Marton, released in 1964). This sub-chapter weighs the influence the earlier film had on Malick’s approach and investigates the rea- sons why Malick felt compelled to borrow from that film. To lay foundations for an informed examination of Malick’s film-making, the third chapter, “Terrence Malick’s Filmography”, introduces and briefly discusses the director’s other films, starting with the two films that preceded The Thin Red Line—Badlands and Days of Heaven—and continuing with anecdotal 2 1 INTRODUCTION mentions of Malick’s work that came after the director’s return from the twenty- year hiatus, which was ended by the release of The Thin Red Line. The thesis considers Badlands and Days of Heaven in order to trace the origins of Malick’s use of various cinematic techniques, including voice-over and natural imagery, to when they first made appearance in Malick’s work. The chapter continues with an examination of Malick’s motives for making The Thin Red Line and attempts to reconstruct the events that led to the director’s involvement with the project, including the lengthy negotiations that took place during the pre-production period when the producers were trying to persuade Malick to come out of retire- ment. The main chapter of this thesis, “The Thin Red Line by Terrence Malick”, first scrutinizes the critical and public reception of the film, which were both strongly influenced by a number of factors that usually do not figure in the list of criteria upon which an audience’s opinion is based. For critics and film writers, it was the director’s reclusive nature and the highly anticipated return to film- making following a twenty-year pause, during which he disappeared from the public eye. For the public, on the other hand, it was the wave of World War II- inspired films that started to appear in the 1990s. The chapter contains a discussion of the sentiment fostered by war films from that period (with an emphasis on Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg, released in the same year as The Thin Red Line) and the way it reflected the cinema-going public’s changing tastes at that time. These films mostly celebrated the heroic achievements (and mostly disre- garded the more unsavoury exploits) of American servicemen (turned respected war veterans) while introducing a higher level of naturalistic imagery than what had been deemed appropriate and acceptable before. Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan epitomizes this approach, and the enthusiastic reception it received 3 1 INTRODUCTION serves as a handy reminder of the sort of taste that both the lay and critical audiences had when The Thin Red Line was released later that same year. Even before the release of The Thin Red Line, both critics and the public struggled with the film’s demonstrative avoidance of the ‘war film’ label, which was in sharp con- trast to the expectations of the prospective audiences. The celebration of Spiel- berg’s film also provides clues to understanding both the critical reception of The Thin Red Line and the diversity of audience reactions to the film. This is followed by a description of Malick’s directorial style, personality, and his general approach to film-making. The director’s conduct on the set of The Thin Red Line serves as the focal point for this part of the thesis. All of the above is discussed because it allows us to glimpse Malick’s creative process, which in turn heavily influenced the way the film was shot, actors led, and the final cut achieved. In the next part of the main chapter, I discuss Malick’s use of voice-over in the narrative structure of The Thin Red Line (and compare this to his other films), and how the use of this cinematic technique helped to change the film. The dis- tanced, calm, and meditative quality of the voice-overs corresponds with the use of nature and the emphasis on its serenity. And the combination of these two elements provides a platform for both overt and disguised expressions of the film’s central message. In the main part of the chapter, I offer my interpretation and critique of the underlying message communicated by Malick—it is expressed through the film’s carefully balanced exploration of the three motifs that give title to this thesis: war, humanity, and nature. The film does not posit—as it may appear—war against nature, violence against peace, and wanton death and destruction against nature’s calm and beauty. Instead, it uses its purposefully underdeveloped treatment of diegetic action to place war “in the heart of nature” (The Thin Red Line 4 1 INTRODUCTION 00:01:58)—the emphasis is not on nature alone, the war, the soldiers, the fight- ing, or the dying. It is on a fusion of all these things—the oneness of existence as experienced by the sum of all its parts. The final chapter, “Conclusion”, reiterates the main points discussed in the thesis, summarizes the argument presented by the thesis, and outlines the ways the thesis expands on and contributes to the body of existing research on The Thin Red Line and Terrence Malick.

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