Must-watchWorld War II · Film · 1998
The Thin Red Line
An army rifle company is sent to Guadalcanal to take a hill held by the Japanese; among the grass and the gunfire, each soldier wrestles with fear, nature and what the war is doing to him.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Lunga Point, Guadalcanal
Brought back from an idyllic Melanesian village where he went AWOL, Witt comes ashore with C Company, which lands without a shot and marches inland.
Stop 2: Galloping Horse hills ('Hill 210')
Key location
The company attacks up the grassy slopes into machine-gun fire, a captain refuses a suicidal order, and a small group works round to the bunker.
What really happened
The Guadalcanal campaign ran from the Marine landing in August 1942 until Japan evacuated its last troops in early February 1943. Army divisions took over from the Marines late in 1942, and in January 1943 the 25th Infantry Division attacked the Japanese positions on Mount Austen and the hills known as the Galloping Horse and the Sea Horse.
Novelist James Jones served with the 27th Infantry Regiment in that offensive, and his 1962 novel, like the film, fictionalises it as the fight for 'Hill 210'. The campaign cost about 7,100 Allied and some 19,000 Japanese lives, many of the latter from starvation and disease. Malick shot the film mainly in Queensland and in the Solomon Islands.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- The Thin Red Line
- Directed by
- Terrence Malick
- Countries
- United States
- Languages
- English, Japanese
- Released
- 1998
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Pacific
- Themes
- Combat
