THIN RED LINE, THE 311
box office returns were predictably mediocre for a postwar release: $3.2 million
for a picture that cost at least $2.5 million to make.
Reel History Versus Real History
Closely following William White’s book, They Were Expendable achieves a high
degree of historical accuracy. Still, it goes awry in at least three areas: 1) its depic-
tion of General MacArthur; 2) its portrayal of Rusty Ryan, the character represent-
ing Robert Kelly; and 3) its inclusion of a romance subplot. An unabashed admirer
of Douglas MacArthur, John Ford re- created the arrival of “The General” (played
by Robert Barrat) on board Brickley’s PT boat for transit from Corregidor to Min-
danao as a kind of super- patriotic Second Coming in reverse, underscored by an
off- screen orchestra playing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic” and punctuated
by a series of reaction- shot cutaways of American soldiers and sailors in rapturous
admiration. The scene is so excessively fawning that some critics wrongly detected
an air of mockery. In the real world, MacArthur was not much admired by U.S.
rank- and- file troops, who thought him an incompetent, imperious blowhard who
lost the Philippines through a lack of preparedness. They sarcastically nicknamed
him “Dugout Doug” for assiduously looking after his own safety during and after
the fall of the Philippines while his troops died in droves. (MacArthur, against Army
regulations, also accepted a $500,000 payoff from President Manuel Quezon of the
Philippines in February 1942). John Wayne’s real- life counterpart, Robert B. Kelly
(1913–1989), sued MGM for libel for depicting him as a moody, undisciplined hot-
head and was awarded $3,000. Donna Reed’s real- life counterpart, Beulah “Peggy”
Greenwalt Walcher (1911–1993), also sued, contending that the film’s portrayal of
her in a fictitious extramarital romance damaged her reputation and was an inva-
sion of privacy. A federal court jury in Missouri agreed and awarded her $290,000 in
1948.
Thin Red Line, The (1998)
Synopsis
The Thin Red Line is an American war epic written and directed by Terrence Malick.
Based on the eponymous novel by James Jones, the film is a semi- fictionalized
account of the Battle of Mount Austen during of the Guadalcanal Campaign
of World War II. It stars Sean Penn, Jim Caviezel, Nick Nolte, and Elias Koteas
as soldiers of C Com pany, 1st Battalion, 27th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry
Division.
Background
James Jones, the author of From Here to Eternity (1952), earned a Purple Heart in
combat on Guadalcanal: a lonely, soul- searing experience he transmogrified into
his fourth novel, The Thin Red Line (1962). Virginia Kirkus called the book a “well-
drawn battle narrative [that] provides take- off points for dozens of character