The Thin Red Line - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of The Thin Red Line or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to The Thin Red Line

[kyle]

In the film's script, much of the characters' speech and much of the narration are actually lines taken from the James Jones novel "From Here to Eternity". For example, Witt frequently speaks the words of Private Pruitt, and Sergeant Welsh speaks the words of Sergeant Warden.

[wesley]

Several weeks before filming began, Terrence Malick told Robert Michael Geisler and John Roberdeau not to show up in Australia where the film was being made, ostensibly because George Stevens, Jr. would be the on-location Producer supporting Line Producer Grant Hill. Malick told them that they had upset the studio for refusing to give up above-the-title production credit to Stevens. He did not tell them, however, that in 1996 he had a clause inserted in his contract barring the producers from the set. Geisler and Roberdeau were mystified about this behavior; Geisler told Entertainment Weekly, "I didn't think he was capable of betrayal of this magnitude."

[linda]

Terrence Malick shot for one hundred days in Australia, twenty-four in the Solomon Islands, and three in the United States.

[sara]

Filming also took place on Dancer Mountain, which had such rough terrain that trailers and production trucks could not make it up the hill. A base camp was set up and roads carved out of the mountain. Transporting two hundred fifty actors and two hundred crew members up the hill took two hours.

[nora]

Both it and Saving Private Ryan (1998) began being filmed the very same month, June 1997.

[charlie]

In the final narration by Train (John Dee Smith), he says, "Darkness and Light. Strife and Love. Are they the workings of one mind, the features of the same face?" This is a slight misquote of William Wordsworth's Prelude: Book Six, lines 636-8: "Tumult and peace, the darkness and the light / Were all like workings of one mind, the features / Of the same face".

[sara]

In 1995, once word went out that Terrence Malick was making another movie after many years, numerous actors approached him, flooding the casting directors until they had to announce they wouldn't be accepting more requests. Some A class actors including Brad Pitt, Al Pacino, Gary Oldman and George Clooney offered to work for a fraction and some even offered to work for free. Bruce Willis even went as far as offering to pay for first-class tickets for the casting crew, to get a few lines for the movie. At Medavoy's home in 1995, Malick staged a reading with Martin Sheen delivering the screen directions, and Kevin Costner, Will Patton, Peter Berg, Lukas Haas and Dermot Mulroney playing the main roles. In June of that year, a five-day workshop was scheduled at Medavoy's with Brad Pitt dropping by, and culminating with Malick putting on the soundtrack of Where Eagles Dare (1968) and playing Japanese taiko drums. Malick met with an interested Johnny Depp about the project at the Book Soup Bistro on the Sunset Strip.

[carl]

Lieutenant Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte) says to Captain Staros (Elias Koteas) on the dawn of the day of the attack, "Eos rhododactylos . . . rosy-fingered dawn." He used the second part of that line, "Rosy-fingered dawn" again in The Good Thief (2002).

[edgar]

Right after Captain Staros (Elias Koteas) has his big confrontation with Colonel Tall (Nick Nolte) in which he refuses to make a frontal attack on the ridge, he hangs up the sound power and mutters in Greek. "He's lost it. He doesn't know what he's saying." Roughly: "Ta echi chasi aftos," then "xery tee moo lay." (This line is not in Jones' novel.)

[brent]

The role of Marty Bell was originally meant for Julia Roberts.

[norma]

The majority of soldiers' names are only one syllable long: Tall (Nick Nolte), Fife (Adrien Brody), Witt (Jim Caviezel), Gaff (John Cusack), and Welsh (Sean Penn).

[elmer]

Music Editor Lee Scott and Francesco Lupica, the creator and performer of the Cosmic Beam, provided the haunting "metalic" sound to the films score. What sounds like a large distant bell is actually the Cosmic Beam. Malick would later use variations of the Cosmic Beam in his films, The New World (2005), The Tree of Life (2011), To the Wonder (2013), and Knight of Cups (2015).

[tom]

Terrence Malick's unconventional filming techniques included shooting part of a scene during a bright, sunny morning only to finish it weeks later at sunset. He made a habit of pointing the camera away during an action sequence and focus on a parrot, a tree branch or other fauna.

[carla]

Two aircraft were used for the background flying sequences. They were painted and modified to look like USN Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, but were in fact a Harvard and a Wirraway. Unfortunately little footage of the aircraft managed to make the final cut. There's a glimpse of the Wirraway running along the invasion beaches piloted by Doug Haywood and Owen O'Malley. O'Malley is one of two of the movie pilots who actually flew in World War II; Jack Curtis was the other one. Sadly, The Wirraway crashed at an air show in Nowra, Australia in 2000. It was piloted by O'Malley, and both he and his passenger perished.

[riley]

Neil Patrick Harris was considered for the role that went to Lukas Haas, but was eventually left on the cutting room floor.

[mathew]

Harrison Ford turned down the role of Gordon Tall.

[addison]

Producer Robert Michael Geisler first started talking to Terrence Malick about making this film in 1989.

[jeffrey]

Prior to the film's release, producers Robert Michael Geisler and John Roberdeau allegedly violated a confidentiality clause they had signed by giving an interview to Vanity Fair about their long involvement with Terrence Malick and the film. Malick was so upset that Geisler and Roberdeau had to sign another agreement stating they would not attend the Oscars ceremony. If they violated that agreement, their names would be stripped from the film and video credits.

[morris]

Contrary to popular belief, the unit in the film and the characters in it are U.S. Army, not Marines. They are wearing Army herringbone twill fatigue uniforms, and are using M1 Garand rifles, which most Marines on Guadalcanal did not have. The Marines led the invasion of Guadalcanal in August of 1942, but operations were turned over to the Army, who finished the campaign in February of 1943.