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 enlarge | Director: Terrence Malick
Actors: Kirk Acevedo, Penelope Allen, Benjamin Green, Simon Billig, Mark Boone Junior
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Category: DVD
List Price: $14.98
Buy Used: $1.69
You Save: $13.29 (89%)
New (63) Used (52) Collectible (2) from $1.69
Avg. Customer Rating:  928 reviews
Sales Rank: 5681
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd-video, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 170
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.6
MPN: D2003000D
UPC: 024543030003
EAN: 0024543030003
ASIN: B00005PJ8T
Theatrical Release Date: January 8, 1999
Release Date: May 21, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 The Thin Red Line August 2, 2006
1 out of 14 found this review helpful
Eye opening. No Idea our troups had to fight that hard for that insigmificant piece of real estate. It really showed the horrors of war and how crazy brave our men were.
God Bless Our
troups!!!
 Pretentious and Slow Moving...But Amazingly Poetic July 22, 2006
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Terrence Malick is a legendary filmmaker, probably because it takes him at least 10 years to make a movie. This is (I believe) is 2nd film and his first since "Badlands," which came out in the '70s. This movie came out in 1998 and was nominated for 7 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Director. Problem is, when you're up against another war epic (Saving Private Ryan) and a movie about Shakespeare (Shakespeare in Love), then you're probably not going to get either one. This movie got great reviews, but some audiences still give it lukewarm praise. It's difficult for them to swallow, because it's not a typical guns blazing-get right to the point war movie. It takes its time and moves at a snail like pace and never really reaches the conclusion that some moviegoers wish for. The movie boasts an amazing cast however including Oscar Winners Adrien Brody (Best Actor, 'The Pianist'), George Clooney (Best Supporting Actor, 'Syriana'), Sean Penn (Best Actor, 'Mystic River'); As well as Oscar Nominees John Travolta (Best Actor, 'Pulp Fiction'), Woody Harrelson (Best Actor, 'The People Vs. Larry Flynt'), John C. Reilly (Best Supporting Actor, 'Chicago')...Oh and Jesus (Jim Caviezel) is in it. As well as John Cusack ('The Ice Harvest'), Nick Stahl ('Sin City'), and Jared Leto ('Lord of War') among others. The movie is basically told through the eyes of several different characters and a lot of voice-over. The movie opens with Witt (Caviezel), an AWOL private merely walking around an Island pointing out some things for the viewer. When his ship shows up, he gets back into his battalion, which is ran by Welsh (Penn). Anyway, eventually they all get off the boat onto an island and spend the rest of the movie there fighting a war. With all the actors, there's way too much detail to go into. Except, oddly enough, despite all these big name actors...Many of them are in the movie very little. George Clooney is in the movie for about two minutes and he doesn't show up until 2 hours and 37 minutes in. The main characters, for a while, are really Caviezel, Cusack, Elias Koteas, and Nick Nolte. And they just kind of float in and out of the story. Anyway, the movie is very poetic and the performances are solid...But the thing with Malick is, you either love him or you hate him. I have to fall into the middle category, I see what he's doing and I respect it...But, sometimes, I find it dull and unamusing. This is, technically, a great movie. But it's not for everyone.
GRADE: B-
 Huge Disappointment July 18, 2006
3 out of 16 found this review helpful
This is an "art film" trying to pass itself off as a war movie.
I'm not saying that all war movies have to look and sound the same...but it is nice when you can follow the bloody thing. Actors appear and disappear while we're treated to shots of just about every living thing on the islands. Snakes, birds, lizards. When I see more flora and fauna than Japanese soldiers during a World War II movie, I know I'm in trouble.
The flashbacks of the guy with his wife got about as tedious as BJ Hunnicut whining about "Peg and the kids" during the last jumped-the-shark seasons of MASH.
The voice-over narrations got so numerous and ponderous that I lost track of which character was talking at one point. "Where did we lose the magic?" Ugh.
This was a big disappointment after the previous summer's SAVING PRIVATE RYAN.
The Thin Red Line between good and bad acting July 16, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I thought I remembered this as being a good movie when I was a kid. Upon seeing this movie again, some thirty-five years later; I was wrong. The acting is terrible and the story has more than a few technical flaws that really irked me. Such as the soldiers with no grenandes hanging from their web gear (they magically appear during the battle scenes), or only one BAR in the entire company, and no one wearing bandoleers of ammo for their M-1 rifles. And one of the biggest faux's was the use of German MP-40's (9mm subguns) by both the Americans and Japanese (In the Pacific War?).
A cheaply made movie (technically speaking) for only the psychological impact. I guess I'm just used to more realism than was displayed in this movie. If you've ever seen bad acting when a soldier is getting shot - a la "Hell Is For Heroes," then you're really going to laugh at the way guys die in this movie. Ugh! I'm donating my video to the local library.
Hard Hitting GI Film July 13, 2006
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This was a film that was not affraid to be controversial. While not a great work, it was typical of war films being made about WW2 in the late 50s, early 60s. Some of these films were not affraid to look at the more gritty, nasty aspects of combat. It is significant in a lot of these films the strain often shown between commanding officers and their men. In this case the blood and guts quality of the CO versus his subordinate. The US army of the time often didn't have much time for sentimentality. Films like this were willing to show that.
The combat scenes are intense for their time, but not overly graphic. Its interesting that the army is portrayed here instead of the Marines. Most Pacific war flicks usually portray the Marines versus the Japs. Here we see what the army often had to do after the Marines moved on to another island.
This is a hard hitting film for its time, with little real plot other than the strains and stresses of combat on the various characters. The 1998 re-make was probably a more vague and poetic film. Certainly its scenery is much more vivid than what you get here. Its also a lot slower moving! The music is a tense score from English composer Malcom Arnold whose work is evident in many films of this period. This is your classic B&W war film for the time it was made in. Take it or leave it!
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