312 THIN RED LINE, THE
studies, and the author describes emotional responses to battle, fear, death,
homo sexuality, along with detached, ironic comments on army organ ization and
the workings of fate, luck and circumstance” (Kirkus, 1962). The Thin Red Line was
first made into a film in 1964, directed by Andrew Marton and starring Keir Dullea
and Jack Warden, a simplified adaptation that still managed to evoke some of
the disturbing power of the original work. Flash forward to 1988. Well respected
for two distinctively beautiful films— Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven
(1978)— director Terrence Malick hadn’t made a movie in 10 years when producers
Robert Geisler and John Roberdeau offered him funding to undertake a new proj-
ect. Malick suggested either an adaptation of Molière’s Tar t uffe or of Jones’s The
Thin Red Line. The producers chose The Thin Red Line and acquired the rights from
the author’s widow, Gloria Jones. Malick laboriously developed his script, complet-
ing a first draft in May 1989. As Peter Biskind notes, “Malick ultimately fashioned
a remarkable script, infused with his own sensibility. But he had made some ques-
tionable choices. He retained several of Jones’s more conventional situations, but
dropped some in ter est ing ele ments, including the suggestion of a homoerotic
undertow among some of the characters. Later, he changed Stein, a Jewish cap-
tain, to Staros, an officer of Greek extraction, thereby gutting Jones’s indictment of
anti- Semitism in the military, which the novelist had observed close-up in his own
com pany” (Biskind, 1999). Geisler and Roberdeau formed an alliance with Phoe-
nix Pictures, a production com pany started by Malick’s former agent, Mike Meda-
voy, in 1995, and a financing deal was struck with Sony Pictures. After scouting
locations in Panama and Costa Rica, Malick chose the rainforests of northern Aus-
tralia, and crews began building sets in Queensland when the movie hit a major
roadblock when Sony’s new studio head, John Calley, cancelled funding, forcing
Malick and Medavoy to pitch the proj ect to other studios. Fox 2000 Pictures agreed
to supply $39 million— the lion’s share of the budget— stipulating that Malick cast
five movie stars from a list of ten provided. Pioneer Films, a Japa nese com pany,
contributed $8 million and Phoenix added another $3 million. Other sources
brought the total up to the original $52 million. Malick, a former Rhodes Scholar
who had studied philosophy at Oxford with Gilbert Ryle, was held in high esteem
by actors as a ce re bral, visionary director, so he had no trou ble attracting the best
talent in the business for his new film. Many A- list actors, including Brad Pitt, Al
Pacino, Gary Oldman, Leonardo DiCaprio, Johnny Depp, Nicolas Cage, Bruce Wil-
lis, Edward Burns, Matthew McConaughey, William Baldwin, Neil Patrick Harris,
Josh Hartnett, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Stephen Dorff, offered to work for a
fraction of their usual fee. As a result of the heavy traffic in interested parties, cast-
ing took a full year. None of these actors were cast, but those who were (noted later)
were of equal caliber. Others who were cast— Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas, Mickey
Rourke, John C. Reilly— had their parts eliminated or radically pared down. Adrien
Brody saw his part, Cpl. Geoffrey Fife, gutted. Fife had been the lead protagonist
in Jones’ novel and in Malick’s 198- page screenplay but ended up a mere cameo,
with two spoken lines and about five minutes of screen time, so that Jim Caviezel’s
role could be vastly expanded. Billy Bob Thornton recorded voice- over narration