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 (Dead Man Walking, Milk), Nick Nolte (The Prince of Tides, Affliction), Elias Koteas (Zodiac, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers, The People vs. Larry Flynt) among them—The Thin Red Line is a kaleidoscopic evocation of the experience of combat that ranks as one of cinema’s greatest war films.
Extras
DIRECTOR APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES
• Restored high-definition digital transfer, approved by director Terrence Malick and cinematographer John Toll (with DTS-HD Master Audio) • Audio commentary featuring Toll, production designer Jack Fisk, and producer Grant Hill • Outtakes from the film • Video interviews with several of the film’s actors, including Jim Caviezel, Elias Koteas, and Sean Penn; composer Hans Zimmer; editors Billy Weber, Leslie Jones, and Saar Klein; and writer James Jones’s daughter Kaylie Jones • Video interview with casting director Dianne Crittenden, featuring original audition footage • World War II newsreels featuring footage from Guadalcanal • Original theatrical trailer
PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Sterritt and a 1963 essay by James Jones on war films