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The Thin Red Line,1998
Direction / Adapted Screenplay by Terrence Malick

It’s no contest deciding which of the year’s two World War II epics — Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan or Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line — will earn 1998’s Oscar for Best Picture. Ryan offers bloody D-Day heroics, adrenal stimulation and tearful sentiment, plus assurances that although war may be hell, it’s also a hell of a character builder. Spielberg tells us what we want to hear. Line, adapted by director Malick from the James Jones novel about the key American victory over the Japanese at Guadalcanal, offers raw fear, combat numbness and moral uncertainty, plus assurances that war dehumanizes the men it doesn’t kill. - Rolling Stone

The Thin Red Line is American author James Jones's fourth novel. It draws heavily on Jones's experiences at the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse during World War II's Guadalcanal campaign. The author served in the United States Army's 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division.

The novel's title alludes to a line from Rudyard Kipling's poem "Tommy", from Barrack-Room Ballads, in which he calls British foot soldiers "the thin red line of heroes.”

Thin Red Line is a great film. Very deep in its presentation, although it veered a bit from the source novel.

Of course everyone has their own opinion but I found Thin Red Line unwatchable,just couldn't get into it even though I tried.
Maybe I'm just too shallow

It’s not for everyone. We could all make lists of Great War films: Lewis Milestone directed “All Quiet on the Western Front” and “A Walk in the Sun” covering events in both WWI and WWII in each film. Stanley Kubrick, my favorite director, made “Paths of Glory” and “Full Metal Jacket,” covering WWI and the Vietnam War, respectively. The last Great War movie I watched was “Twelve O’Clock High” starring Gregory Peck. I would easily put that at the top of the list of “bomber crew movies.” I was thinking of the score for “A Thin Red Line,” which was composed prior to filming began, and contains some of the most suspenseful cues I have ever heard. I was thinking of the photography by John Toll, the astoundingly mysterious shots of animals in the jungles and last but not least of Private Witt, a serial deserter of battles, whose emergence as a hero in terms of the story are both fascinating to me and less difficult to define. I don’t like movies that spell out everything to me, and I find myself less and less interested in being spoonfed a simplification of what lies at the core of our struggles as we humans persist in opposition to each other. I suppose growing up in the direct shadow of pacifist Quaker behavior makes the layers of “A Thin Red Line” resonate more distinctly. I think the depiction of battle, madness and following orders are its strongest thematic elements, but the depiction is never direct, and that may be frustrating; the interior narration which is never made explicit is also potentially an irritation as well. There’s no clear through line in “The Thin Red Line,” but the company does meet its primary objective, and I believe the convergence of different points of view is very much in keeping with the book. Ultimately I am offering my perspective on what the movie contains, not quite the madness of “Apocalypse Now” or the coming of age found in “Platoon,” but a depiction of jungle warfare at its source, which would consume our country for years to come.

Well said, Bruce. I understood some of it, well, a lot of it, but certainly not all of it, and I wouldn't pick up a third of it watching the movie.

Think of Thin Red Line as the sequel to From Here to Eternity, which it essentially is. The middle novel of James Jones semi autobiographical trilogy. The third is Whistle, which he died while writing, and was completed by another author using Jones’ outline & draft notes. All three novels feature variations of the same four main characters, in the same roles, but by different names to allow for deaths.

I wish I explained the story like you did, Carlos. I had the book since high school, too. My takeaway on the film was the beautiful scoring by Hans Zimmer and his studio, the wall of green on the hill, the animals slithering in and out of each shot, and Witt’s expression when he realizes he’s caught and will always be caught between wanting to live as far from the Western world as possible, embracing the islander’s lifestyles and overturning the rules of armed service which prevent him from obtaining his goals.

A good movie from recent events is on Netflix called "The Outpost". It is a compressed true story of the Battle of Kamdesh at the cop Keating October 3, 2009 in Afghanistan. There are a few soldiers who were there that play themselves in the movie. I am currently reading "Red Platoon" written by Clinton Romesha. He and Ty Carter were both MOH recipients from this battle. 53 soldiers attacked by at least 350 Taliban


https://youtu.be/m2RebNGTqjM

Saw the trailer on Netflix but debated on watching it.

I liked the Outpost. Good film and a bit nerve wracking.