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Home , Adrien Brody, Elias Koteas, Grant Hill (producer), Kirk Acevedo, Mother Night (character), Saar Klein

Please turn off cellphones during screening April 10, 2012 (XXIV:12) Online versions of the Goldenrod Handouts are in color , THE THIN RED LINE (1998, 170 min.)

Directed by Terrence Malick Based on the novel by James Jones Screenplay by Terrence Malick Produced by Robert Michael Geisler, , John Roberdeau Original Music by Hans Zimmer Cinematography by John Toll Film Editing by Leslie Jones, Saar Klein and

Nick Nolte…Lt. Col. Gordon Tall Jim Caviezel…Pvt. Witt …1st Sgt. Edward Welsh Elias Koteas…Capt. James 'Bugger' Staros Ben Chaplin…Pvt. Bell 1973 Badlands, and a short (student film at USC) 1969 Lanton Dash Mihok…Pfc. Doll Mills. He was also one of the screenwriters on all his films, as …Capt. John Gaff well as 1972 Pocket Money, 1972 Deadhead Miles, and 1971 …Cpl. Fife Drive, He Said, 1969. John C. Reilly…Sgt. Storm …Sgt. Keck HANS ZIMMER (b. Hans Florian Zimmer, September 12, 1957, Miranda Otto…Marty Bell Frankfurt am Main, Hessen, West Germany) won an Oscar for …2nd Lt. Whyte The Lion King (1994). Some of his other 145 scoring credits are …Brig. Gen. Quintard 2012 The Force, 2011 Kung Fu Panda: Secrets of the Masters, …Capt. Charles Bosche 2011 Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, 2011 Kung Fu Nick Stahl…Pfc - Beade Panda 2, 2011 Pirates of the Caribbean: On Tides, Thomas Jane…Pvt. Ash 2010 Inception, 2010 “The Pacific” (10 episodes), 2009 Sherlock John Savage…Sgt. McCron Holmes, 2009 It's Complicated, 2009 Angels & Demons, 2008 Will Wallace…Pvt. Hoke Frost/Nixon, 2008 The Dark Knight, 2008 Kung Fu Panda, 2007 John Dee Smith…Pvt. Train The Simpsons Movie, 2007 Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's Kirk Acevedo…Pvt. Tella End, 2006 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, 2006 Penelope Allen…Witt's Mother The Da Vinci Code, 2005 Batman Begins, 2005 Madagascar, Simon Billig…Lt. Col. Billig 2004 Spanglish, 2003 Something's Gotta Give, 2003 The Last Mark Boone Junior…Pvt. Peale Samurai, 2002/I The Ring, 2001 Black Hawk Down, 2001 Norman Patrick Brown…Pvt. Henry Invincible, 2000-2001 “Die Motorrad-Cops: Hart am Limit” (23 Arie Verveen…Pvt. Charlie Dale episodes), 2001 Pearl Harbor, 2001 Hannibal, 2000 Mission: Jarrod Dean…Cpl. Thorne Impossible II, 2000 Gladiator, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1997 As Good as It Gets, 1997 Smilla's Sense of Snow, 1996 The TERRENCE MALICK (b. Terrence Frederick Malick, November Preacher's Wife, 1996 The Fan, 1996 The Rock, 1995 Beyond 30, 1943, Ottawa, Illinois) has directed ten films, two of which Rangoon, 1995 Crimson Tide, 1994 The Lion King, 1994 are in pre-production and two in post-production: 2013 Knight of Renaissance Man, 1993 The House of the Spirits, 1993 True Cups (pre-production), 2013 Lawless (pre-production), 2012 Romance, 1992 A League of Their Own, 1991 Regarding Henry, Untitled Terrence Malick Project (post-production), 2012 1991 Thelma & Louise, 1991 Backdraft, 1990 Bird on a Wire, (post-production), 2011 The Tree of Life, 2005 1989 Driving Miss Daisy, 1989/I Black Rain, 1988 Rain Man, The New World, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1978 , Malick—THE THIN RED LINE—2

1986 Separate Vacations, 1985 Insignificance, 1984 Histoire 1994 Wyatt Earp, 1992 Diggstown, and 1991 My Own Private d'O: Chapitre 2, and 1984 Success Is the Best Revenge. Idaho.

JOHN TOLL (June 15, 1952, Cleveland, Ohio) was SEAN PENN… 1st Sgt. Edward Welsh (b. Sean Justin Penn, cinematographer on 32 films, among them, 2011 The Adjustment August 17, 1960, Santa Monica, California) won two best actor Bureau, 2009 It's Complicated, 2008 , 2006 in a leading role Oscars: (2008) and (2003). Some Seraphim Falls, 2005 Elizabethtown, 2003 The Last Samurai, of his other 47 roles have been 2011 This Must Be the Place, 2001 Vanilla Sky, 2001 Captain Corelli's Mandolin, 2000 Almost 2011 The Tree of Life, 2006 All the King's Men, 2005 The Famous, 1999 Simpatico, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1997 The Interpreter, 2004 The Assassination of , 2003 21 Rainmaker, 1996 Jack, 1995 Braveheart, 1994 Legends of the Grams, 2000 The Weight of Water, 1998 The Thin Red Line, Fall, 1989 “The Young Riders”, 1987 “The China Odyssey: 1998 , 1995 Dead Man Walking, 1993 Carlito's Way, 'Empire of the Sun', a Film by Steven 1990 State of Grace, 1989 Casualties of Spielberg”, 1985 The Beach Boys: An War, 1988 Colors, 1985 The and the American Band, 1972 The Hoax, and 1971 Snowman, 1984 Racing with the Moon, The Young Graduates. 1984 Crackers, 1982 Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and 1981 Taps. IAN GRACIE has 32 art director credits, including 2012 The Great Gatsby, 2008 ELIAS KOTEAS… Capt. James 'Bugger' Australia, 2005 The Chronicles of Narnia: Staros (March 11, 1961, Montréal, Québec, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, Canada) has 76 acting credits, some of 2005 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of which are 2011 A Very Harold & Kumar 3D the Sith, 2003 Ned Kelly, 2002 The Quiet Christmas, 2011 Dream House, 2011 American, 2002 Star Wars: Episode II - Winnie, 2011 “Combat Hospital”, 2010 Let Attack of the Clones, 2001 Moulin Rouge!, Me In, 2010/II Die, 2010 My Own Love 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1997 Paws, 1997 Song, 2010 Shutter Island, 2010 3 Paradise Road, 1996 The Island of Dr. Backyards, 2010 The Killer Inside Me, 2009 Moreau, 1994 No Escape, 1990 Quigley The Fourth Kind, 2008 The Curious Case of Down Under, 1988 The Dreaming, and Benjamin Button, 2007 Prisoner, 2007/I 1985 An Indecent Obsession. Zodiac, 2002 “”, 2002 Collateral Damage, 2001 “Shot in the … Lt. Col. Gordon Tall (b. Heart”, 2000 Dancing at the Blue Iguana, Nicholas King Nolte, February 8, 1941, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1998 Living Out Omaha, Nebraska) has 88 acting credits, Loud, 1997 , 1996 Crash, 1995 The among them, 2011-2012 “Luck” (9 Prophecy, 1994 Exotica, 1993 Teenage episodes), 2011 Zookeeper, 2011 Arthur, Ninja Turtles III, 1990 Look Who's 2008 Tropic Thunder, 2006 Peaceful Warrior, 2004 Hotel Talking Too, 1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, 1989 Malarek, Rwanda, 2003 , 2002 Intimate Affairs, 2000 The Golden 1988 Tucker: The Man and His Dream, 1988 “Onassis: The Bowl, 1999 Breakfast of Champions, 1998 The Thin Red Line, Richest Man in the World”, 1987 Gardens of Stone, and 1987 1997 Affliction, 1996 , 1996 Mulholland Falls, Some Kind of Wonderful 1995 Jefferson in Paris, 1992 Lorenzo's Oil, 1991 The Prince of Tides, 1991 Cape Fear, 1990 Another 48 Hrs., 1990 Q & A, BEN CHAPLIN… Pvt. Bell (b. Benedict John Greenwood, July 1989 Farewell to the King, 1987 Weeds, 1987 Extreme 31, 1970, London, England) has appeared in 35 films and TV Prejudice, 1986 Down and Out in Beverly Hills, 1984 Teachers, series, among them 2011-2012 “Mad Dogs”, 2011 Twixt, 2010 1983 Under Fire, 1982 48 Hrs., 1982 Cannery Row, 1980 Heart London Boulevard, 2010 Ways to Live Forever, 2009 Dorian Beat, 1979 North Dallas Forty, 1978 Who'll Stop the Rain, 1977 Gray, 2008 Me and , 2005 The New World, 2002 The Deep, 1976 Northville Cemetery Massacre, 1976 “Rich The Touch, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1997 Washington Square, Man, Poor Man” (9 episodes), 1974 “Gunsmoke”, 1974 1995 “Resort to Murder”, 1993 The Remains of the Day, and “Emergency!”, 1974 “The Streets of San Francisco”, 1973 1990 “Casualty.” Electra Glide in Blue, and 1969 “'s Wonderful World of Color.” DASH MIHOK… Pfc. Doll (b. Dashiell Mihok, May 24, 1974, , New York) has 62 acting credits, including 2011 JIM CAVIEZEL… Pvt. Witt (b. James Patrick Caviezel, “Grey's Anatomy”, 2011 “ Five-0”, 2011 “Prime September 26, 1968, Mount Vernon, Washington) has 36 acting Suspect”, 2011 Trespass, 2011 The FP, 2011 The Mortician, credits 2011-2012 “Person of Interest” (17 episodes), 2012/I 2011 On the Inside, 2010 “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, 1995- Transit, 2009 “The Prisoner” (6 episodes), 2008 Long Weekend, 2009 “Law & Order”, 2007 I Am Legend, 2007 and Death 2008 The Stoning of Soraya M., 2008 Outlander, 2006 Déjà vu, 101, 2006 , 2005 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, 2004 2004 Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, 2004 The Passion of the “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation”, 2001 One Eyed King, 1998 Christ, 2004 Highwaymen, 2004 The Final Cut, 2002 The Count The Thin Red Line, 1998 Telling You, 1996-1997 “Pearl” (22 of Monte Cristo, 2001 Angel Eyes, 2000 Pay It Forward, 1999/I episodes), 1996 Sleepers, 1996 Foxfire, and 1993 “CityKids” Ride with the Devil, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1997 G.I. Jane, Malick—THE THIN RED LINE—3

JOHN CUSACK… Capt. John Gaff (b. John Paul Cusack, June including 2012 The Hunger Games, 2011 Rampart, 2011 28, 1966, Evanston, Illinois) has 64 acting credits, among them with Benefits, 2009/I 2012, 2009 Zombieland, 2009 Defendor, 2012 The Raven, 2011 The Factory, 2007 1408, 2005 The Ice 2008 Management, 2008 Sleepwalking, 2007 No Country for Old Harvest, 2003 Runaway Jury, 2003 Identity, 2001 America's Men, 2006 A Prairie Home Companion, 2001 “Will & Grace” (7 Sweethearts, 1999 Being John episodes), 1999 Play It to the Malkovich, 1999 Cradle Will Bone, 1998 The Hi-Lo Rock, 1999 Pushing Tin, 1998 Country, 1998 The Thin Red The Thin Red Line, 1998/I This Line, 1998 “Ellen”, 1998 Is My Father, 1997 Midnight in Palmetto, 1997 Wag the Dog, the Garden of Good and Evil, 1997 Welcome to Sarajevo, 1997 Con Air, 1997 Grosse 1996 The People vs. Larry Pointe Blank, 1996 City Hall, Flynt, 1994 Natural Born 1994 The Road to Wellville, Killers, 1985-1993 “Cheers” 1994 Bullets Over Broadway, (200 episodes), 1993 Indecent 1993 Map of the Human Heart, Proposal, 1992 White Men 1992 Bob Roberts, 1991 Can't Jump, 1991 Doc Shadows and Fog, 1991 True Hollywood, 1991 L.A. Story, Colors, 1990 The Grifters, 1989 1989 True Believer, and 1978 Fat Man and Little Boy, 1988 Harper Valley P.T.A. Eight Men Out, 1987 Broadcast News, 1986 Stand by Me, 1984 Grandview, U.S.A., and 1984 JOHN TRAVOLTA…Brig. Gen. Quintard (b. John Joseph Sixteen Candles. Travolta, February 18, 1954, Englewood, New Jersey) has been in 63 films and TV series, among them 2010 From Paris with ADRIEN BRODY…Cpl. Fife (April 14, 1973 in New York City, Love, 2009/I Old Dogs, 2009 The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, 2007 New York) won a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in The Hairspray, 2007 Wild Hogs, 2006 Lonely Hearts, 2004 (2002). Some of his other 47 roles were in 2011 Midnight , 2003 Basic, 2000 Lucky Numbers, 1999 The General's in Paris, 2011 Detachment, 2010 Wrecked, 2010 The Daughter, 1998 A Civil Action, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1998 Experiment, 2010 Predators, 2008 , 2008 The Primary Colors, 1997 Face/Off, 1996 Michael, 1996 Broken Brothers Bloom, 2007 , 2006 , 1995 Get Shorty, 1995 White Man's Burden, 1994 Pulp Hollywoodland, 2005 King Kong, 2003 The Singing Detective, Fiction, 1993 Look Who's Talking Now, 1990 Look Who's 2002 Dummy, 2000 Bread and Roses, 1999 Summer of Sam, Talking Too, 1989 Look Who's Talking, 1983 Two of a Kind, 1999 Oxygen, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1998 Restaurant, 1997 1983 Staying Alive, 1981 Blow Out, 1980 Urban Cowboy, 1975- The Undertaker's Wedding, 1994 , 1991 The 1979 “Welcome Back, Kotter” (78 episodes), 1978 Moment by Boy Who Cried Bitch, and 1988 “Home at Last.” Moment, 1978 Grease, 1977 Saturday Night Fever, 1976 “The Boy in the Plastic Bubble”, 1976 JOHN C. REILLY…Sgt. Storm (b. Carrie, 1975 The Devil's Rain, 1973 John Christopher Reilly, May 24, “The Rookies”, and 1972 1965, , Illinois) has 68 film “Emergency!” and TV credits, among them 2010- 2011 “Check It Out! with Dr. Steve GEORGE CLOONEY…Capt. Brule” (7 episodes), 2011 Carnage, Charles Bosche (b. George 2011 Cedar Rapids, 2010 “Tim and Timothy Clooney, May 6, 1961, Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! Lexington, Kentucky) won a best Chrimbus Special”, 2007-2010 supporting Oscar for his role in “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Syriana (2005). He has 68 other Great Job!” (25 episodes), 2010 film and TV acting credits, among “Drunk History”, 2010/I Cyrus, them 2011 The Descendants, 2011 2007 Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox The Ides of March, 2010 The Story, 2007/I Year of the Dog, 2006 American, 2009 The Men Who Stare Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, 2006 A Prairie at Goats, 2009/I Up in the Air, 1994-2009 “ER” (109 episodes), Home Companion, 2004 The Aviator, 2002 The Hours, 2002 2008 Burn After Reading, 2007 Michael Clayton, 2007 Ocean's Chicago, 2002 Gangs of New York, 2000 The Perfect Storm, Thirteen, 2006 The Good German, 2005 Syriana, 2005 Good 1999 Magnolia, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1998 Flagpole Special, Night, and Good Luck., 2004 Ocean's Twelve, 2002 Solaris, 2001 1997 Chicago Cab, 1997 Boogie Nights, 1995 Dolores Ocean's Eleven, 2000 The Perfect Storm, 2000 O Brother, Where Claiborne, 1993 What's Eating Gilbert Grape, 1992 Hoffa, 1991 Art Thou?, 1999 Three Kings, 1998 The Thin Red Line, 1998 Out Shadows and Fog, 1990 State of Grace, 1990 Days of Thunder, of Sight, 1997 Batman & Robin, 1996 From Dusk Till Dawn, 1989 We're No Angels, and 1989 . 1993-1994 “Sisters” (19 episodes), 1993 “The Building”, 1992- 1993 “Bodies of Evidence” (16 episodes), 1992 The Harvest, WOODY HARRELSON…Sgt. Keck (b. Woodrow Tracy 1992 Unbecoming Age, 1988-1991 “Roseanne” (11 episodes), Harrelson, July 23, 1961, Midland, Texas) has 70 acting credits, 1988 Return of the Killer Tomatoes!, 1987 “Murder, She Wrote”, Malick—THE THIN RED LINE—4

1984-1985 “E/R” (22 episodes), 1982 And They Are Off, and gone through drastic changes while he walked the earth for 1978 “Centennial” twenty years, and the new corporate chiefs preferred market- friendly blockbusters to offbeat art pictures. With support JOHN SAVAGE…Sgt. McCron (b. John Smeallie Youngs, gathered from Fox 2000 and some independent production August 25, 1949, Old Bethpage, Long Island, New York) has 10 companies, Malick started shooting in June 1997, wrapping up a films in post-production, plus 170 other acting credits, some of hundred days and more than a million feet of film later, on time which are 2012 Hit List, 2012 Sweetwater, 2011 The Orphan and on budget. The result is a masterpiece—a Malick Killer, 2011 The Last Gamble, 2010 Dreamkiller, 2010 The Right masterpiece, telling a powerfully written, superbly acted story to Bear Arms, 2009 Buffalo Bushido, 2008 The Grift, 2008 The that casts new light on his characteristic themes of nature and Golden Boys, 2006 Shut Up and Shoot!, 2006 Kill Your Darlings, culture, thought and language, humanity and inhumanity, 2006 The Drop, 2005 The New World, 2003-2005 “Carnivàle” paradise lost and transcendence found. (15 episodes), 2005 “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”, 2004 Malick’s legendary refusal to do interviews or comment “Law & Order: Criminal Intent”, 2004 Fallacy, 2002 The on his work makes it hard to answer certain basic questions, such Anarchist Cookbook, 2000-2001 “Dark Angel” (24 episodes), as why he wanted to film James Jones’s 1962 novel to begin 2001 Dead Man's Run, 1999 Summer of Sam, 1998 The Thin Red with. Based on Jones’s own experiences, The Thin Red Line Line, 1998 Centurion Force, 1997 Firestorm, 1997 Flynn, 1997 takes place on Guadalcanal, the strategically located Pacific Last Cut, 1996 One Good Turn, 1996 White Squall, 1995 The island where Allied troops confronted Japanese forces by land, Crossing Guard, 1995 “The X-Files”, 1990 The Godfather: Part sea, and air between August 1942 and February 1943. This was a III, 1989 Do the Right Thing, 1987 Beauty and the , 1986 costly but pivotal campaign, marking the transition to offensive Salvador, 1981 The Amateur, 1981 Cattle Annie and Little operations that brought victory for the Allies in the Pacific Britches, 1980 Inside Moves, 1979 The Onion Field, 1979 Hair, theater. Taking a grunt’s-eye view, the novel follows a company 1978 The Deer Hunter, 1976-1977 “Gibbsville” (13 episodes), of infantrymen who arrive as reinforcements when the fighting is 1973 Steelyard Blues, 1972 Bad Company, and 1969 The Master well under way. The story is long, dense, deterministic, and grim, Beater. combining realistic descriptions of combat with intimate accounts of soldiers’ thoughts and impressions. The first time I David Steritt: The read it, I found it more cumbersome and conventional than Thin Red Line: This Jones’s earlier and better war novel From Here to Side of Paradise (1951), and although its psychology seems truer and more (Criterion Notes) complex to me today, its major differences from Malick’s The Thin Red Line, previous pictures—including its faraway setting, historical arguably the greatest background, and large cast of characters—make it an unexpected war film ever made, choice for such a quintessentially poetic filmmaker. ended two decades of It’s likely that a couple of key factors drew Malick to silence from Terrence the novel. One was his fascination with ordinary people in Malick, cinema’s extraordinary situations. Many critics have discussed Malick’s wandering auteur. intellectual bent, his training in philosophy, his study of German The silence wasn’t thinker Martin Heidegger, his brief professorial career. What entirely self-imposed, rarely get mentioned are more routine parts of his — since during this time playing high school football, working as a farmhand, writing for he tried to launch a popular magazines like Life and Time—that reflect an interest in few productions— unremarkable folks. Almost every man in The Thin Red Line is including a tale of an , lost in the bewilderness, struggling to survive nineteenth-century under conditions as baffling as they are horrific. Among the most psychoanalysis and a important to the film are Lieutenant Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte), Jerry Lee Lewis who hopes the fighting will get him a promotion; First Sergeant biopic—that didn’t reach the shooting stage. But mainly he Welsh (Sean Penn), a battle-weary man whose pragmatism appears to have bided his time, gathering ideas and inspirations borders on cynicism; and Private Witt (Jim Caviezel), whose while living in Paris and Los Angeles, then rejoining the industry perception of a transcendent spark in even the most hardened and for his most ambitious project to date—a World War II epic as afflicted people is at the narrative and philosophical center of the poetic and philosophical as his previous pictures, Badlands film. Malick’s sympathy goes out to some characters more than (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978), and larger in scale than both others, but his sensitive portrayals testify to his profound of them combined. engagement with all of their lives. By all accounts, it took long negotiations for a team of producers to get Malick back behind the camera. Hollywood had Malick—THE THIN RED LINE—5

I think Malick was also intrigued by the tremendous prevail over it—into the very fabric of The Thin Red Line. His contrast between story and setting in the novel, where savage great creative passions—nuances of light, subtleties of camera combat rips bodies and minds apart on a tropical island of movement, rapport between word and picture—all reflect his stunning beauty. The book and film both contain hard-hitting conviction that cinematic reality is reality, and that film, treated battle sequences, especially during the company’s protracted with due reverence and expertise, is able to absorb not just effort to take a hill protected by a heavily armed Japanese patterns of luminosity but also the transcendent essences of bunker, but where Jones concentrates on naturalistic military and people, places, and things. psychological detail, Malick gives full play to philosophical Malick’s devotion to cinematic sight and sound is ideas as well. Opulent nature equaled by his commitment to imagery is his most the aesthetics of language. The recognizable cinematic Thin Red Line is about words as trademark, but crucially he much as it’s about anything; finds human personalities and more precisely, it’s about the behavior no less “natural” than intimate interconnection between their surroundings—a fact word and image, which Malick that’s especially resonant when explores in truly audacious ways, the environment is a jungle, especially in the scenes with where life and death, creation voice-overs. The more I’ve and destruction, are watched The Thin Red Line, the continuously and ubiquitously more unsure I’ve become about intertwined. At times, The Thin how some of the voice-overs Red Line seems pessimistic, correspond with the people on suggesting that forces of the screen; so many characters degeneration and regeneration have similar accents, speech are “not one power but two,” as Witt puts it, forever battling each patterns, and tones of voice that even a key passage like the other, with humanity caught in the crossfire. The film’s first “darkness and light” soliloquy is impossible to pin with certainty image is of a crocodile slithering into concealment, signaling the to a particular speaker. This isn’t because Malick wants to danger and violence that dwell in nature whether or not separate the characters from their words—just the opposite: he “civilized” intruders add to the fray with murderous mechanisms wants to underscore the fact that human beings are bathed in of their own. Yet in the end, Malick puts forth the optimistic language at every moment, and that language may ultimately be belief (with an almost gnostic tinge) that the cosmos is the best, most lasting facet of human experience, able to glide essentially harmonious, in its spiritual wholeness if not its and soar even when the bodies associated with it are dying and material particularities. decaying in killing fields “Darkness and light, strife below. “Everyday and love,” a voice-over language,” wrote Ludwig muses in the final scene, Wittgenstein, another “are they the workings of modern philosopher one mind? The features of Malick takes to heart, “is a the same face?” part of the human Malick’s answer organism and is no less is yes. The crocodile complicated than it.” reappears only once, as a Taking this unity as a harmless captive of the given, Malick explores not soldiers, and while military only the social functions violence is the narrative’s of spoken dialogue but driving force, sunstruck also the meditative images of grass, trees, functions of unspoken magnificently colored birds, inner speech, often and idealized native heightened and expanded Melanesians recur by music that privileges throughout the film as well. emotional depth over Neither darkness nor light can be said to win the day. Malick linear, logical meaning. respects and reveres them both, regarding them less as categories Malick accomplishes this most movingly when words, of physics, biology, and art than as transcendent realities that music, and cinematography unfold in counterpoint, contrasting abide within and beyond the world of appearances we inhabit. and converging in polyrhythmic waves. As the film approaches Malick agrees with Heidegger that humanity’s fundamental the two-hour mark, for instance, a relatively minor character mistake is to use intellect and technology as means of controlling named Private Dale (Arie Verveen) threatens a traumatized the world rather than dwelling organically with its mysteries, the Japanese prisoner with brutal treatment. The captive, who most daunting of which is death. With this in mind, he weaves doesn’t understand a thing Dale is saying, speaks a few soft conflicting impulses toward nature—to harmonize with it and to phrases in Japanese, and in the background, Hans Zimmer’s Malick—THE THIN RED LINE—6 magisterial score quotes the interrogative trumpet line of “The dotted by circular holes with raised edges, which momentarily Unanswered Question,” the 1906 tone poem that composer fills the screen. This object may or may not be part of his Charles Ives described as a “cosmic landscape” echoing with the surroundings—it’s impossible to tell from the brief look we unanswerable question of existence. Another superb example get—but the circular openings definitely echo the timeworn comes when Tall orders Captain Staros (Elias Koteas) to execute bases of age-old pillars seen in the opening shot of Kenji a frontal attack on the Japanese bunker and Staros refuses to Mizoguchi’s classic Sansho the Bailiff (1954), another film obey, seeing the mission as suicidal. Their argument, conducted juxtaposing savagery and redemption. If this connection seems over portable field telephones, is filmed in a conventional back- like a stretch, recall that Malick loves Mizoguchi’s cinema so and-forth pattern, with occasional cut-aways to other soldiers. much that he wrote a stage version of Sansho the Bailiff, Yet the sequence carries unconventional power, due partly to the produced (without critical or commercial success) at the performances—Nolte’s volcanic rage versus Koteas’s reasoning Brooklyn Academy of Music in 1993. Tracing all the calm—but more to Malick’s superb orchestration of audiovisual connotations of this visual echo would take half an essay in itself, details: the contrasting vocal timbres, the progressively and The Thin Red Line bristles with such evocations, not to tightening close-ups, the sunlight striking one side of Tall’s face, mention its multifaceted dialogue with Malick’s earlier films, its the bent-backed rigidity of his finger on the handset, and above anticipation of his 2005 epic The New World, and its implied all the brooding current of commentary on the war low strings on the and historical-epic soundtrack, which transforms genres. For sheer what might have been a cultural richness, it has merely dramatic scene into few rivals in modern something close to the film. musical form called Before closing, melodeclamation, fusing I want to return to the voices and instruments into a often-quoted “darkness single expressive force. and light” soliloquy in Exactly when Staros begins the final scene. “Oh my declaring his refusal, soul,” it concludes, “let moreover, the music relaxes me be in you now. Look its tension and moves to a out through my eyes. higher, brighter register, Look out at the things again enhancing the you made. All things moment’s emotional shining.” It’s a curious strength. This is total cinema of the highest order. passage that doesn’t make literal sense. The soldier is asking to Riveting scenes like these are reminders that The Thin be in his soul, and for the soul to look out through his eyes, Red Line is not a philosophical tract. It’s an action picture, albeit which is an impossible trick unless you do the kind of an unorthodox one where the fighting doesn’t start until halfway topological math that makes doughnuts and teacups identical; the through and major stars (John Travolta, George Clooney) turn up statement that all things are shining seems equally amiss, in tiny roles, thanks to Malick’s apparently intentional considering the horrors we’ve been witnessing for almost three postproduction excising, not only to reduce the running time but hours. But in this film’s context, the voice-over seems right and also to undermine the hegemony of the Hollywood star system. lucid. Purist, perfectionist, and obsessive planner though he is, The film’s philosophy comes mainly through the voice-overs, Malick remains a radically intuitive artist, guided by personal which spend more time asking questions than propounding visions as surely as The Thin Red Line is haunted and blessed by answers. Malick even takes an amusing swipe at intellectual dematerialized voices of another kind. Neither words nor pictures pretentiousness. On the battlefield, Tall boasts to another officer can lay bare the mysteries of existence, he seems to say, but their that he read Homer in Greek during his West Point years, but combination in cinema can help us know the mysteries are there Malick has made it plain that Tall is a thoroughly shallow and sense the truths that underlie them. individual, pretty much clueless about anything more meaningful Malick’s intuitive approach explains why The Thin Red than nailing the promotion he has “eaten untold buckets of shit” Line starts with unanswerable questions—“What’s this war in the to engineer. He can say that eos rhododaktylos means “rosy- heart of nature? Why does nature vie with itself?”—and ends fingered dawn,” but he’s as philosophical as one of those with a verbal paradox, accompanied by free-flowing images that buckets. frame the narrative without dictating its meanings or restricting Of the many gratifications offered by The Thin Red its ideas. The final image is the most enigmatic of all: a small Line, one of the most enjoyable is teasing out the amazingly wide clump of soil, or perhaps a broken coconut shell, in a pool of range of references—literary, poetic, musical, cinematic—that calm water, holding a stalk of new life that reaches toward the Malick weaves through it. Some allusions are hard to miss, such sky with its shoots and toward the earth in its shimmering as the skulls in a ruined Melanesian village that recall avatars of reflection. Is it a symbol of all things shining? An intimation of insanity in ’s very different war movie in a world inundated with death? A response to the Apocalypse Now (1979). Others are oblique and ephemeral. film’s opening questions, saying that nature can harmonize with Spending time in the brig for being AWOL with the locals yet itself after all? It’s impossible to decide, or even to know what all again, for instance, Witt has a fleeting of a metal plate Malick—THE THIN RED LINE—7 the choices are. And this is precisely what makes it one of the his characters, even those who look most godforsaken to ordinary most intensely memorable film images I’ve ever seen. eyes. The title of The Thin Red Line means a number of things. Writing about Malick several years ago, I quoted In one of the epigraphs of Jones’s novel, it’s a line of military Wittgenstein’s observation that “the world and life are one,” heroes praised by Rudyard Kipling; in the other epigraph, it’s the which could be Malick’s motto. More than any of his peers, he porous border “between the sane and the mad” mentioned in an focuses less on the psychological self than on what Wittgenstein old midwestern saying. These meanings are pertinent to the film calls the “philosophical self,” defined as “the metaphysical and book alike, but for Malick the phrase has deeper resonances. subject, the limit of the world—not a part of it.” Among the To him, the thin red line is ultimately the limit of the world. Film many achievements of his towering war film, none is more is the only medium that lets him glimpse it, and lets us glimpse it enthralling than its transformation of Jones’s messy, muddled with him, as cinema enters our souls and we look out through its soldiers into carriers of the metaphysical “spark” that Witt sees in eyes, feeling Witt’s elusive spark within ourselves. Welsh (to Welsh’s own amazement) and that Malick sees in all

TWO MORE IN THE SPRING 2012 BUFFALO FILM SEMINARS XXIV Apr 17 Fernando Meirelles, City of God, 2003 Apr 24 , The Dark Knight 2008

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