The Thin Red Line (1998) Reaction & Review! FIRST TIME WATCHING!! 

I am a Vietnam veteran so I see some of the similarities in these two conflicts. There are a few brief scenes that I feel there. I smell the heat and the dust and feel the heat of the sun. Even after numerous viewings over the years it still brings this feeling of my being there. It is a beautiful piece of cinema.

Saving Private Ryan got most of the awards in 1998, but while that still stands as a great film, The Thin Red Line is one that haunts me. It's beautiful, horrifying, and meaningful, and does things on a narrative level that hit me in just the right way. I would happily sit through the rumored 6 and 9 hour cuts of this film. As others have mentioned, Malick's films that I would happily recommend: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The New World (Director's Cut), Tree of Life, and A Hidden Life.

The score for this is one of my all time favorites

That "You are my sons, you live inside me now" part is such a beautiful scene!

"Who's in this movie?" "EVERYONE." This was actually supposed to be Adrien Brody's big breakout movie. In fact, I believe his character in the book this is based on is one of the main viewpoint characters. It wasn't until the premier that Brody discovered almost his entire role had been cut. Witt actually survives in the original book. The book itself is a sequel of sorts to James Jones's previous novel, From Here To Eternity, which was adapted into a film starring Frank Sinatra, Donna Reed, Deborah Kerr, and Burt Lancaster in 1953. Notably, the oft-spoofed scene of a couple making out in the surf as the waves crash around them (such as Airplane!, which ends in the lovers covered in seaweed) originates with this film. The Battle of Guadalcanal began on August 7, 1942, with the landing of the First Marine Division, and ended in February 9, 1943, when the Japanese finally abandoned their efforts to retake the island. This film depicts the events of the Battle of Mount Austen, the Galloping Horse, and the Sea Horse, which lasted from December 15 - January 23, involving the US 27th Infantry Regiment of the 25th Infantry Division (US Army, which relieved the exhausted Marines). The Americans had effectively secured control of the island in the aftermath of the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal a month earlier, so the events of this movie are mostly part of the "mopping up" operation. So the island of Guadalacanal had nominally already been captured BEFORE this movie takes place.

Greatest war movie ever made. And Saving Private Ryan is one of my favourite movies...

I saw The Thin Red Line in theaters and it has always stuck with me. I can understand that it may not be for everyone, but I think it is such a beautiful and haunting film.

0:58 Saving Private Ryan is more simple and murican. This is a deeper, more beautiful and meaningful movie.

TTRL is the reason I don't watch war movies anymore. And Nolte deserved an Oscar.

I highly recommend "Downfall" (2004)!

When they shot this, everyone in the cast thought Adrien Brody was the lead. He was the lead character in the script. In the final cut, he doesn't have any lines and appears in about two or three shots. He found out when he went to the premiere, thinking this was his first starring role. That's Terence Malick in a nutshell! PS: Love the intro: "Today I'll be watching "The Thin Red Line", directed by Terence Malick and starring everyone, apparently." :D

The novel was 510 pages long and was a different class of writing than most modern novels. So they had a lot of material to work with and pare down to make a movie even of this length.

This was Malick's first movie in 20 years (1978's "Days of Heaven").

The ship used in this movie is the Lane Victory. It was also used in Flags of Our Fathers and Titanic.

One of the greatest Visually shot films ever. Malick gets a little too lost in himself sometimes though. He never told which actor was going to be the lead until it just became Caviezel

The best war movie I've ever seen. Watched it back in 98 when it came out... Still have the poster I bought the next day hanging in my living room...

Cracking film. I actually prefer it to SAVING PRIVATE RYAN as I think it’s more objective and less sentimental about war.

I was lucky to see this twice in theatre. Still one of my faves! Malick's films generally become increasingly poetic and less narrative-driven throughout his career. His style of filmmaking creates more of an experience than a plot to be followed.

If you dig Malick's sumptuous naturalism, Ridley Scott's 1977 debut masterpiece _The Duellists_ and 1986's _The Mission_ with Robert Deniro are ones for the list.

Actually, most of the men did return, although some of them went through hell to get there. The battle of Guadalcanal can be divided into phases. In phase 1 the Marines landed largely unopposed and captured the still unfinished airfield. In phase 2 the Navy pulled out and the Marines repelled Japanese counterattacks, some of which were very bloody affairs. In phase 3 the Marines advanced slowly while the SeaBees worked to finish the airfield. This film is set in phase 4 - the Navy is mostly back, the airfield is up and running, the Marines have been pulled out and the Army has taken over and is clearing the rest of the island. The battle has actually been won at this point but nobody knows it yet; the Japanese were still trying to retake the island but could never send enough troops to do it, or feed the ones they sent. Eventually they evacuated.

This film was in competition with Saving Private Ryan in 1998. The music by Hans Zimmer. I read about Malick once about this movie, that he is bored directing action scenes, that if it had been up to him, he would have hired Renny Harlin (fashionable action director for those years, responsible for Die Hard 2, Deep Blue Sea and Cliffhanger with Stallone), to film the war scenes, while Malick directed only the acting and dialogue scenes, which is what he likes to direct the most.

Great reaction! You're spot on, if not ahead of the majority, for a first time viewing. What I find the most interesting is your criticism of it not having a cohesive character plot line. That is part of the plot and intention of the film. I consider it to be a more complete war film compared to others because it is multi-POV. It is the thoughts and impact of a war, not just a single tribe (soldiers/natives), person, or character story line. The movie's purpose is accomplished because of the multi POVs and not being overly focused on one character or aspect of war. The switch between characters during the pacing of the film is brilliantly done to give the viewer the same sense of confusion and not knowing fully what is going on or what's about to happen... time to reflect on what's happened. Still, it's 100% unpredictable, and that switch from character to character with limited time for being able to invest in them drives emotion and the true purpose of the movie to be a multifaceted, complete picture of war.

I adore this movie, it's one of my favorites. I'm surprised anyone on youtube even reacts to this movie but I'm glad you did Shan. Great reaction and intro to Malick. You should explore more of his stuff like: Badlands, Days of Heaven, A New World, Tree of Life, and just recently he made another movie set during World War 2 called A Hidden Life which was wonderful.

14:54 - score was written by Hans Zimmer and he was nominated for Academy Award

This movie is so beautifully shot it's mesmerising. Great choice, Shan.

Malick is definitely a divisive director, some see him as obtuse and self indulgent, others have pretty much an awakening watching his films. Definitely definitely recommend reacting to The Tree of Life, would make a great reaction

Nick Nolte gave the best performance I had seen him give. Absolutely crushed it.

Saving Pvt Ryan showed what war does to the body and The Thin Red Line shows what war does to the mind.

I suggest the movie "Valkyrie" from 2008!

I grew up with this film and heavily influenced my childhood wonder with its dreaminess.

For another war film like this one: "The Big Red One" (Restored Version)(1980)--directed by Sam Fuller with Lee Marvin, Mark Hamill and Robert Carradine.

_"There's only a thin red line between the sane and the mad."_ Thank you for your intelligent and thoughtful reaction to this masterpiece, Shan. It's not an easy watch but is one of my favourite films for its unflinching depiction of the madness of war and what it means to be human amidst that madness.

BRILLIANT FILM NOT OFTEN SPOKE OF. MOST EXCELLENT INDEED.

Shan allow me to clarify an important thing. This film doesn't deal with wrongness from politicians but military inefficiency. This war was one of annihilation, if the Axis Powers were to win the war it meant the whole globe would be partioned among them, a totally new world order. This film shows how military leaders as Nick Nolte, and later it is assumed from George Cloony out of Sean Penn's thoughts, how they play war in a theoretical basis mixed with their own biases what yields an unnecessary high casualty rate.

The older I get the more I seem to understand the meaning of the line 'You are my sons.' Fantastic movie, brilliant review/reaction.

Sean Penn, John Travolta Jim Caviezal, Nick Nolte,Woody Harrelson, George Clooney, John C Reilly, Jared Leto, Ben Chaplin, John Cusack, Adrian Brody, Elias Coteas, Miranda Otto, Thomas Jane, Tim Blake Nelson, And John Savage star in this epic Oscar nominated war film.

In my opinion, this film is more versatile and interesting in meaning than the film "Save Private Ryan". After watching The Thin Red Line, I had a lot of really interesting thoughts and reasoning. For example, from the most banal that war changes people, to the most global, that war destroys nature. And the war also shows who the person really is and that he leads his country or for the sake of a reward. This film showed me that each person in the war decides for himself certain goals and motives. In general, war is the most terrible thing that man has come up with on earth. And the questions arise: Why the war at all?

Nolte's performance was amazing in this movie.

I think the sense of confusion was intentional. What-are we doing, why are we doing this, what is the way forward, isn’t always clear to the person truly immersed in a situation. And I think the film was intended be immersive in that struggle to understand.

Now that you're getting into Malick I would absolutely recommend watching "Badlands" with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Especially if you liked "True Romance", as it was Tarantino's influence when writing that film.

Yes! My fave war film. Such a work of art, nothing conventional about it. I saw it opening day on Christmas (odd choice, I know but I'm a Malick fan) in Times Square NYC and Spike Lee was in the audience. I guess he's a fan too. 😊

The Battle of Guadalcanal was the first American land invasion in the Pacific after WW2 started. If Japan had taken over the island before the Americans got there, Australia could have been bombed into capitulation. On the day of arrival they unloaded as many troops, weapons and supplies as they could with more to come. But that night there was a massive naval battle and the next morning there were no American boats left.

There is a Japanese soldier, on the top of the hill, sitting in silent prayer (Buddhist, I think) that gets totally ignored by the American soldiers. I am not sure why, but that scene always seems special to me.

This movie slipped through the cracks at the time but I love it

Saving Private Ryan was more sentimental, patriotic and manipulative. In other words, a Spielberg film. I think this film is substantially better.

One of the best film scores, if not THE best, film scores of all time. Specifically the song “Journey to the Line”. I saw Hans Zimmer perform this one live at one of his concerts. Just thinking about it still gives me chills.

2:47 There is not really an "introduction" in Terence Mallick movie. He has his own unique style. 10:18 Maybe it is: life is fragile. 10:40 There is that sort of plant even in Finland too. :) 11:33 I like that reaction. 26:09 It's the entire pont of what Terrence Mallick film is about. :) 31:23 Watching you reactions I knew you would said that. It was like it was supposed to be. 26:30 That is because that even the characters were not main idea of tis movie. Not the story or the characters, but more wider ideas of life, time, love, death, memory. 30:38 The next movie he directed "The New World" (2005) is a good one to watch next.

the jungle fight that starts in the fog is one of my favorite movie scenes of all time

The late shot of the natives, not shown in the reaction, cast them as more malevolent and less idyllic than at the start, including human skulls up on the shelf. That was meant to reflect the heroe's reduced opinion of humankind in general.

This movie was an absolutely brilliant mix of cinematography, metaphors, and realistic depictions of a soldier's life in a time of war.

The most incredible story about the making of this film is that Adrien Brody was cast in what he thought was a lead role, but at some point during the filming of the movie, Malick became fascinated with Jim Caviezel's performance. Since Terry doesn't shoot with anything resembling a working script, he gradually started shooting more of Caviezel and less of Brody. Brody attended the film premiere with his family thinking this was his first breakout role, imagining his likeness would be the center of the film's promotional materials, etc... He found out AT THE SCREENING OF THE FILM that he had been virtually excised from the entire movie during the editing process. Now that's brutal.

Woah. Talk about a movie I didn't know I wanted to see someone react too... this one. ESPECIALLY want to see YOUR reaction. I haven't seen your reaction yet, but really looking forward to it. This film is truly a moving work of art, and you, of all the people I watch, will probably appreciate it most. The actors! The score! The mood! The locations! This movie hits a beautiful note that you'd think impossible for a "war" film. Other films I suggest for similar notes are the musical SCROOGE with Albert Finney, NEVER CRY WOLF, A BEAUTIFUL MIND, the full length tv movie SYBIL starring Sally Fields, and SOMEWHERE IN TIME. There are many other films I'd recommend also, but the ones I just listed are artistically haunting, and stick with you long after viewing. All beautiful films.

Very glad to see you tackle this one. Extraordinary film. So happy I went to see it in the theater. Malick is an exemplary film maker. This , The Tree of Life, and The New World are just incredible, but you can’t leave out Days of Heaven or Badlands. Definitely do more of his work.

Awesome reaction sir

You certainly should see more Malick films . . . Badlands (his debut feature) is a MUST . . . also Days of Heaven . . . I did not love Tree of Life as much as many other people did, but it is also certainly worth your time . . .

Really check out his other films, especially The New World, Badlands, and Days of Heaven.

One of the greatest war movies of all time. Nick Nolte, Sean Penn, and Jim Caviezel were amazing.

Everyone wanted to be in this.

Timeless Masterpiece! 💚

It's a shame you didn't get a chance to see it on the big screen where it really shines. Martin Scorsese actually picked this movie as his favorite film of the 90s. Originally, the first cut was 6 hours long and more linear with Adrian Brody being the main character. Personally I prefer this film to Saving Private Ryan. Ryan is the more conventional film, and in the words of another great director who actually fought in WWII, Samuel Fuller (whose film, The Big Red One, you should check out), "Just another goddamn recruitment film." This movie is more like a pacifist's version of a war movie. Malick is one of the great visionaries of filmmaking and you should definitely check out Days of Heaven.

An excellent place to start is at the beginning, so I also support Badlands (1973) to see Malick directing for the first time and with his own script. With Malick, I’d say more reflecting, less thinking.

While I was stationed at Ft. Bragg in the mid 1980s I started dating the girl who became my wife in Raleigh. I was lucky enough to meet a fellow 82d soldier (he was retired): her next door neighbor who turned out to be Charles Dohun. He was portrayed by James Caan in the movie "A Bridge Too Far".

I highly recommend for cujo (1983)

The New World is one of the greatest movies of all time but you have to see the extended edition or the original theatrical release on the criterion disk, not the second theatrical release that had 40 mins cut from it. Highly recommend it

This film suffered from coming out at the same time as Saving Private Ryan but for me it's every bit it's equal (and I actually like it even more) it's just a little harder to get into. Fantastic imagery and cinematography, amazing atmosphere and performances. And its based on a true account. A wonderful.film that carried on the Fantastic run of stellar films Terrance Malick was on (his last couple haven't been up to that early standard imo)

Great review. Thanks. I've seen pretty much all of Malick's films (as a director) and I think this is my favorite-or the one that impressed me most. I love the highly stylized way that Malick works. It definitely runs through his other works as well. All done with virtuosity. If you enjoy stylzed directorial films, try a couple of movies from Wes Anderson. In my opinion, the "Grand Budapest Hotel" is a work of pure brilliance. I think you'd enjoy it if you haven't seen it already. I'd love to see you review it.

This film is one of my favorites, and is definitely in my top 5 war films. Anytime I see a reaction channel cover it I am ecstatic, so thank you. I am constantly recommending it, (unfortunately many channels just pick the most popular films and that leaves so many amazing films left without their deserved exposure.) If you haven’t seen Days Of Heaven, that’s another fantastic Terrence Malick film. I’ll definitely check out more of your videos as you’ve reacted to some of my favorites, favorites few others are checking out, including Mandy, Dawn Of The Dead, and Angel Heart.

Great reaction! I'd definitely recommend A Hidden Life. In my opinion Malick's movies after Tree of Life aren't great, but A Hidden Life is an exception.

You should check out Malick's first two films he made in the 70's, "Badlands"(1971) and "Days of Heaven"(1978).

I feel like I can trust you to do these justice. Please consider: *"The Remains Of The Day" 1993* Anthony Hopkins, Emma Thompson *"Not Without My Daughter" 1991* Sally Field *"The Joy Luck Club" 1993* Ming-Na, Rosalind Chao Thank you so much!

Love that movie. Great reaction and review. Waiting for Das Boot, The Downfall and Stalingrad. :)

You hit it on the head: it's about nature, and the duality of good and evil (and indifference) within it. Within it....and within oursleves, the nature within mankind. As you say, always existential themes. When this came out, he wasn't the punchline to a joke: he only had "Badlands" and "Days Of Heaven" which are two fantastic movies from the 70s. So yeah, this was the year of "Saving Private Ryan" vs. "Thin Red Line" and you tended to be on one side or another. He followed this up with the fantastic "The New World" about the Jamestown settlement and Pocahontas. "Tree Of Life" is fantastic, although I can't imagine a reaction video for it! Such short cuts! Although there is one particular sequence in "The Tree Of Life" that WOULD make a great reaction video! So if there's anyone who can do "Tree Of Life" it's you! But definitely "Badlands", and ABSOLUTELY: "Days Of Heaven" and "The New World". I think you will be particularly taken with those.

Probably my number 1 or 2 War movie ever made. Came out the same year as Saving Private Ryan and in my opinion it is equally as masterful. 10/10

Ideally, your first foray into Malick should've been DAYS OF HEAVEN, but TTRL was the first film of his in 20 years at that point so it was the first theatrical film for a generation and the beginning of a new stylistic tone for him. TTRL is basically a Nature's-Eye-View of a human war, which is why there are so many environmental shots. The best way to watch Malick is chronologically, but his best work is BADLANDS, DAYS OF HEAVEN, TTRL, THE NEW WORLD and TREE OF LIFE. The later films from TO THE WONDER, KNIGHT OF CUPS, SONG TO SONG and A HIDDEN LIFE are more divisive because of their tone-poem-like quality. I like them all, but it's understandable if they seem kinda inconsistent in quality.

Thanks for another terrific video. TTRL was Malick's first film in twenty years. He has since become rather prolific, and imho his brand of filmmaking (great visuals, sometimes annoying narration, unfocused storytelling) works best when there's a decent amount of time between projects.

Thanks for the video!! See you later!! Stay safe and Merry Christmas ⛄🎄

Overall, I'm not a huge Malick fan but also at the same time, this is one of my favourite war films. I just love it.

Terrence Malick is one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation-I believe of all time as well. Shan, I wouldn't get too hung up on comparing this to Saving Private Ryan, as the two films were made with *very* different intentions. Almost like comparing Wall Street to Ghostbusters, because they both feature businesses. Spielberg made SPR as a way to mark, for younger generations, the realities and sacrifices of WWII veterans (and civilians), which he felt were fading from common knowledge. Here, Malick takes James Jones' (excellent, btw) book and loosely uses the story as a backdrop to interrogate the larger, universal themes you mention in your description. Many times more of a philosophical inquiry than SPR. They are both great movies. Also, you might be surprised to learn this was Malick's return to the director's chair after a 20-year hiatus. I *highly* recommend you get to Tree of Life (the seed of which was germinated during his absence), but you might first want to go back and see Badlands, and Days of Heaven, the two previous (and great) films he made previous to this, in the '70s. Anyway, great job; looking forward to more!

My grandfather fought in that battle and was wounded by a mortar that vaporized his friend. From the stories he told me I completely gave him a pass on his subtle racism against the Japanese. They did some absolutely horrendous things to prisoners of war.

I wish somebody would react to 1980's "The Big Red One."

Nick Nolte was in another WW2 movie call "Farewell to the King" in 1989. He plays a US soldier in Borneo during the Japanese invasion. He escapes into the jungle and is discovered 3 years later by British troops and has become leader of a tribe of headhunters. The British try to convince him to get his tribe to wage guerilla warfare against the Japanese but he is reluctant to after experiencing the war firsthand years prior.

- 17:40 Finally, you've acknowledged the genius of Zimmer's work on this movie ! - You didn't skip the shot of the bird ! When I first saw that movie in a theater, twenty years ago, I told my friends from school something like "That shot had more impact imo than most of the shots of most war movies". ^^; They were all gaga about Saving Private Ryan, that had been released a few months earlier... I was team TTRL. I still think, unlike you, that it's superior to the last two thirds of SPR. - SPR isn't an "ensemble cast". It focuses on a team. Read about how TTRL was made, and you'll understand why it's that way, and why it's excellent that way. - 20:52 Evil bitch of the decade. - Did you recognize John Savage, Jared Leto and Thomas Jane ? - Talking about actors, the performance of Elias Koteas, an actor that you probably don't know, is my favorite next to Nick Nolte's. - The Japanese soldier who shoots Witt says "I don't want to kill you, do you understand ?". - No CGI, mate, nope !

The late 90s saw a slew of films that had similar plots come out at roughly the same time. Armageddon vs Deep Impact also both in 1998 / the year earlier it was Dante's Peak vs Volcano both in 1997

I liked your reaction. Also I have seen many others realize the metaphors like you did. Nature is cruel. All of nature fights with itself, yet that is also why it continues evolving. Just like humans. Without war, we would have not gotten as far technologically....Unfortunately. Today most of just visit nature and find it beautiful and peaceful, but at the end of the day we have a comfy bed with roof over our heads.

I remember this and Saving Private Ryan both came out the same year close to each other. Both with huge casts, and I remember as a kid I always like SPR for the combat scenes and action and thought this movie was just ok but kind of boring. But now, as an adult (36), I can see how both films are so different, and this one is very powerful in its messaging. But yes, I do agree that having seen this movie like 7 times even now, it can be hard to follow and jumps around a little to much scene to scene, and like you said no real focus. Just showing the war as life and nature still going on all around them and there are really no winners in war, but nature and life goes on.

A comparison to Saving Pvt Ryan has to acknowledge that the often-urban, mechanized warfare of Western Europe was a different experience for soldiers than island-hopping in the tropical Pacific. Like many of us found out in the Vietnam War, Nature is always a presence and often an actor in jungle fighting. Tropical SE Asia was such a different physical world for the American GI in 1942 and in 1968. Like Capt. Willard in Apocalypse Now says about, Clean,"Mr. Clean, was from some South Bronx shithole. Light and space of Vietnam really put the zap on his head." I think Guadalcanal had the same effect on guys from the Bronx, twenty five years earlier.

One quick thing: Penn's character buried him and that leads into your larger point. Also, amazing reaction! Easy sub, looking forward to more. Thanks

I saw both of these films near to each other in the theater. Being as I was in my early 20's & saw Saving Private Ryan prior to Thin Red Line, I was quite disappointed at the time as I expected something much different & probably couldn't appreciate it at that age anyhow. Today I still love SPR as much ever but TRL has grown on me significantly w/ age.

This is the best war movie. My husband who was a Marine says it is the best too. Anytime I see Jim Caviezal I can only see him as Jesus

Hey Shan, just throwing this out there but have ever seen the 1964 movie 'ZULU' ? It was about a very small British outpost of Rourke's Drift in Africa where 150 British soldiers were attacked by approximately 4,000 Zulu warriors. Some of the most amazing battles scenes ever put on film! Oh, and it really happened.

This is my favorite Terrance Malick movie I've seen. I watched Knight of Cups recently which I really enjoyed, but it was kinda long and something you definitely had to be in the right mood to watch imo. I agree with another comment below that this movie somehow got 'lost in the cracks' so to speak. Another movie I'd like to recommend that you don't hear about is Alive (1993) with Ethan Hawke. By no means a perfect movie, it has a special quality that sticks with you and is at least worthy of a watch on your own if not for a reaction.

The next movie you should watch is called super fuzz or supersnooper great and funny movie

in some ways this one is better than saving private ryan...great react my fellow BD bro..

Jungle sets are very troublesome. Take Predator. The location scout didn't realize that the seasons are opposite in the southern hemisphere. So when they showed up everything was dead. So they had to bring live plants to each set to make it look "like a jungle". If you look in the background you can see a lot of dead leaves and such.

He has seen paradise. He is saved. Nobody and nothing can take that away from him.

Love the reviews, I think you would enjoy Tree of Life too

I don't mind the preeminence of Malick's film because I love the hell out of it, too, but I wish there were more analyses of it within the greater discussion of Jones' books, especially as it pertains to Witt and Welsh and basically the erasure of Storm and Fife. I often wonder what Malick's treatment of From Here to Eternity and Whistle and also what the extended version of this flick would be like.

17:54 No the ‘adversary’ ! Terence Mallick is a devout Christian and his spiritual signature is all over this beautiful film. Masterpiece…..

I've always felt Full Metal Jacket is to Platoon as Saving Private Ryan is to The Thin Red Line. Both sets of movies make great bookends.

Another great Nick Nolte movie is "The Prince of Tides," one of my favorite films, and I think it's Nolte's best. It's a 'must watch' in my opinion.