314 THIN RED LINE, THE
from enemy fire to wait for reinforcements. Keck reaches for a grenade but acci-
dentally pulls the pin and blows himself up. Lt. Col. Tall radios the com pany com-
mander, Capt. James “Bugger” Staros (Elias Koteas), and orders him to take the
bunker by frontal assault, what ever the cost. Staros refuses. After a tense radio
exchange involving threats of disciplinary action, Tall decides to join Staros on the
frontline to assess the situation. Pvt. Witt, having been assigned punitively as a
stretcher bearer, asks permission to rejoin the com pany, and permission is granted.
On Tall’s orders a small detachment is sent on a reconnaissance mission to deter-
mine the strength of the Japa nese bunker. Pvt. Bell (Ben Chaplin) reports back there
are five machine guns in the bunker. He then joins another small squad (including
Witt), led by Capt. John Gaff ( John Cusack), on a flanking mission to take the bun-
ker. Gaff’s men are able to get in close and take out the bunker and neighboring
spider holes, killing most of the Japa nese defenders without taking any casualties.
Soon, Charlie Com pany takes over one of the final Japa nese forts on the island. The
Japa nese soldiers who they encounter are poorly fed and fighting death, so they do
not resist. The men are granted a week’s leave, but the airfield comes under attack.
The com pany is instead sent on a mission up a river with the inexperienced 1st Lt.
George Band (Paul Gleeson) leading the way. As the Japa nese fire near their loca-
tion, Band sends some men, including Witt, upriver to scout out the situation. The
scouts are met with a group of Japa nese soldiers attacking and try to draw them
away from their unit. Corporal Fife runs back to tell the unit, and Witt sacrifices
himself to make sure that his unit is able to retreat. Witt is later buried near the
riverbank by Welsh and his squad mates. C- for- Charlie Com pany receives a new
commander, Capt. Charles Bosche (George Clooney), boards a waiting LCT (tank
landing craft), and departs the island.Reception
The Thin Red Line was shown in a limited release (five theaters) at Christmas 1998
and grossed $282,534 that weekend. The movie went into wide release on 15 Jan-
uary 1999 (1,528 theaters) and grossed $9.7 million during its opening weekend.
It ultimately earned $98.1 million in worldwide box office receipts. The Thin Red
Line received numerous accolades, including seven Oscar nominations, six Satel-
lite Awards from the International Press Acad emy, and a Golden Bear at the Berlin
Film Festival. John Toll’s cinematography was singled out for a number of film crit-
ics’ awards. Reviews were mixed but mostly positive. On their TV review show, Sis-
kel & Ebert at the Movies, Gene Siskel called The Thin Red Line the “finest con temporary
war film I’ve seen, supplanting Steven Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan from earlier
this year, or even Oliver Stone’s Platoon from 1986. Malick... has an almost-
unmatched eye for the landscape and for storytelling through pictures” (2 January
1999). Roger Ebert was slightly less enthused. On the air he noted that Thin Red
Line’s rambling philosophical musings in voice- over too much resembled simi-
lar musings in Malick’s Days of Heaven from 20 years earlier. In his newspaper
review, he wrote, “The movie’s schizo phre nia keeps it from greatness (this film has
no firm idea of what it is about), but doesn’t make it bad. It is, in fact, sort of fas-
cinating” (Ebert, 1999). The critical consensus was that The Thin Red Line contains