The Thin Red Line / Tigerland DVD

The Thin Red Line is the long-awaited third film from reclusive director Terrence Malick (Badlands, Days of Heaven). An all star cast marks this loose adaptation of James Jones’s novel, set during the World War 2 battle for Guadalcanal between the United States and Japan. The ensemble of characters centres around Pvt. Witt (Jim Caviezel), an introspective rebel who, at the movie’s opening, is AWOL and living an idyllic life among Melanesian natives. When he is found by his C Company superiors he is sent back into battle on the island of Guadalcanal, on which the Japanese hold a tactically critical airfield. This exceptionally beautiful and intelligent war film was shot primarily in Australia’s Daintree Rainforest.

Tigerland: A nation stands divided over the escalating war in Vietnam. Thousands of young Americans lie dead on foreign soil. And at Fort Polk, Louisiana, thousands more prepare to join them. The specter of combat hangs over the men of A-Company, Second Platoon, as they enter the final stage of infantry training. They will be sent to the war. But each man deals with this prospect in his own way. One man’s defiance, however, galvanizes every member of the platoon.