The Thin Red Line

Dir. Terrence Malick. 1998, 170 mins. U.S. 35mm. With Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, George Clooney, John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Elias Koteas, Nick Nolte, John C. Reilly. Malick’s World War II epic marked not only a professional comeback after 20 years of silence but also a major turning point in the filmmaker’s art. Adapting James Jones’s novel about the 1942 Guadalcanal campaign, a treatise on the dehumanizing and deterministic nature of modern war, Malick fashions a freeform work of overflowing humanity, of men adrift in the awesome spectacle of the natural world and the horrific theater of a human-made cataclysm. Through the choral narration of an ensemble cast (including a titanic Nolte), Hans Zimmer’s minimalist score, and John Toll’s roving, Steadicam cinematography, Malick fashioned a new form for narrative cinema. The existential questioning buried in the roots of Badlands and Days of Heaven sprouts into the flowering impulse behind every moment of this vaulted, cathedral-like masterpiece. 

Tickets: $15 / $11 senior and students / $9 youth (ages 3–17) / discounted for MoMI members ($7–$11). There is a $1.50 transaction fee per ticket for all online purchases. The cost of admission may be applied toward a same-day purchase of a membership. 

Order tickets. Please pick up tickets at the Museum’s admissions desk upon arrival. All seating is general admission.