A filmmaker whose reputation had taken on almost mythic dimensions due to the twenty-year gap between his first two films – the masterpieces Badlands and Days of Heaven – and his eventual return in 1998, expectations for The Thin Red Line were at fever pitch when the film finally arrived in cinemas. With a huge cast of A-List names (Sean Penn, George Clooney, Nick Nolte, Jim Caviezel) having lined up to work with the legendary director, many were flummoxed by the poetic, elliptical film that emerged.
Set during the Guadacanal Campaign in the Pacific during WWII and based on James Jones’ novel of the same name, Malick’s film is as much focused on the nature of the Pacific as the violence taking place within it. The stories of the various disaffected soldiers portrayed on screen often fade into the background, in an elemental portrayal of a landscape indifferent to the theatre of war.
With various leads including George Clooney, Mickey Rourke and Adrien Brody having their roles cut or dramatically reduced during the film’s legendary seven month edit, The Thin Red Line has the scale and the star wattage of one of the great traditional epics, but with an elemental sweep that makes it one of the most contemplative, poetic war films ever made. It received 7 Oscar nominations.