The Thin Red Line to get HD Criterion treatment!

http://twitpic.com/1a8o5m

That sure does look like Private Witt in the Criterion screening room . . .

 

The island footage will look even more sumptuous! I'm not a fan of the way the Steven Spielberg "The Pacific" is shot, they desaturated the color out again. It worked for the European BOB but not in the tropical islands.

 

SOOOOOO excited about this. One of my all time favorite movies. Every time I watched it, I felt like I appreciated it more and more.

I couldn't tell from looking at the page - who put that photo up on Twitter? Someone who works at Criterion?

 

Masswriter, I hope you are correct.

Several weeks ago, I did find a thread (goggle "Thin Red Line . . . blu-ray) that mentioned a "reliable source" said that Malick was supervizing the blu-ray for a forthcoming Criterion release of The Thin Red Line (criterion forum?).

Then there was endless speculation about all the footage "left on the floor," and how everyone wished for a greatly expanded version, longer than the theatrical release.

Well, I wish for it to, but realistically speaking, it seems most likely that we would get the theatrical release, which would be fantastic. Anything longer would be icing on the cake.

 

I'd love to see any extra footage, as long as its fully produced. But I'd prefer to see it in an extras section, and not inserted into the movie. I guess as long as the theatrical version is preserved, I'm okay with an extended cut. But I like the theatrical version the way it is and don't want only an extended version to be the one available.

 

Awesome news. The last newsletter sent by Criterion hinted at this (a picture of a thin red lion saying that he was feeling "blu"). Now if they'd only be able to secure the rights to Badlands.

 

Some of the most beautiful and hypnotic images of the last 30 or so years have come from the camera of Malick. He's managed (like Kubrick) to be able to make the films he wants at his leisure. THE NEW WORLD was another mesmerizing piece of cinema.

 

I believe, from my source, that Badlands is also in Criterion's future.

TTRL is indeed theatrical. Malick doesn't have time right now to dip into thos eendless reels of footage, with Tree of Life still in post-production and anoter film being prepared for shooting this fall.

 

The picture is long and slow enough as is. It's a good picture but it's right on the line for length.

 

I don't want to see the film made any longer. Length is not a virtue unto it's self.

 

I don't think you'll have to worry. I was "rumored" that Malick wasn't too enthusiastic about picking through all the extra material and reconstructing what would essentially be a "new" movie.

I also read that Adrian Brody was shocked when he first saw the theatrical version. In the shooting, his character had a much more prominent role, which it no longer had in the final and/or theatrical version.

This isn't like the situation with Apocalypse Now vs. Apocalypse Now Redux where, with a few notable exceptions, one is dealing with a self-contained extended scene (the plantation scene) that was cut as a whole from the narrative.

Wasn't there more than three hours of additional footage (I've even heard something like 6 to 9 hours total)? A whole "new" movie could be created . . . same characters, but different emphases, narrative flow, etc. Yeah, I'd buy the longer cut in a minute (also wanting the theatrical cut included), but I fear they would never be able to recover the cost of such an elaborate production. And that's why it will never happen.

 

Malick should'a stuck closer to James Jones who was, afterall, a greater artist than Malick and one with far more insight into what makes men tick. The 1960s picture sticks pretty close to Jones and is in many ways superior to Malick's picture.

 

There wouldn't have been much reason to make the movie if Malick were going to do that. I haven't seen the original, but I have read the novel. Since a version that stuck close to the novel already existed, I doubt Malick had any interest in making another movie like that. I think Malick took it to another level and surpassed the source material. I liked the book, but it wouldn't rank among my favorite novels of all time. Malick's movie, however, does.

 

Gloria Jones gave Malick encouragement to adapt it, fo rshe felt that he was the only director truly equipped to think like her husband. So that's that.

The rumored five hour cut was that assemblage culled from the numerous reels of film. This followed faithfully the 200-page script. Leslie Jones and Billy Weber used the script as the guide and created a rough cut based on that. They then handed the edit to Malick who from there dropped much of the dialogue and embellished it with his torrents of footage from the second-unit crew in the Solomon Islands (Malick and co. were in Australia). So, the long cut isn't so much a rumor as it was a formality being the editors job to sort of patch together from the reels the movie as it was intended from the script. But, as we now know, Malick never sticks to his scripts.

According to Leslie Woodhead who witnessed Malick sifting through the dailies as he began whittling the film down, there were "torrents" of material, yet Malick admitted he never saw all o fit and felt that he never had enough time to properly edit the film, as Fox wanted it out in time for Oscar consideration. A slightly longer cut was shown to critics, but Malick was still not happy with it and took it back into the editing room to make some final cuts. This is our theatrical cut and, for all intents and purposes, the director's cut, for despite feeling rushed, he did have the final say on how it would finally appear.

Criterion's will be the theatrical cut, albeit with the avid involvement of Malick and cinematographer John Toll to make the high-def print a pristine one.

 

According to www.releaselists.com, The Thin Red Line (Criterion Edition) is due August 17th. Great news!

Also noted here: http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4563

 

Excellent news! Watching The Pacific lately has me really craving Thin Red Line.

 

The Criterion blu-ray release of TTRL was announced yesterday, to be released in September. Special features listed below:

The Thin Red Line

* New audio commentary featuring director of photography John Toll, production designer Jack Fisk, and producer Grant Hill
* Outtakes from the film
* Video interviews with several of the film's actors, including Kirk Acevedo, Jim Caviezel, Ben Chaplin, Tom Jane, Elias Koteas, Dash Mihok, and Sean Penn
* New video interview with casting director Dianne Crittenden, featuring original audition footage
* New interview with composer Hans Zimmer
* New video piece featuring interviews with editors Billy Weber, Leslie Jones, and Saar Klein
* An interview with writer James Jones's daughter Kaylie Jones
* World War II newsreels featuring footage from Guadalcanal and the Solomon Islands
* Original theatrical trailer
* A booklet featuring an essay by film critic David Sterritt and a 1963 essay by James Jones on war films


http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=4753

Of course, we would all love a much longer "director's cut," but I'm thankful for having a Malick-approved Criterion blu-ray edition of this great movie.

 

Very excited about this release. Will go nicely alongside the Days of Heaven BD. Here's to hoping Badlands gets similar treatment.

A little off-topic, but what's the general consensus on The New World BD in terms of Blu-rays (not the quality of the movie itself)?

 

I have the Extended Cut BD and it looks spectacular, everthing you could hope for.

Very much looking forward to The Thin Red Line. I saw it theatrically on a large screen and it was a memorable experience.

Tom

 

I noticed today at the Criterion site that they have finally put up the cover art for the DVD and blu-ray. Suffice it to say that the cover art isn't a shot I'm familiar with.

They also posted one frame . . . I assume it is taken from the remaster. The colors are gorgeous.

I'm really looking forward to owning this blu-ray.

http://www.criterion.com/films/27513-the-thin-red-line

 

I don't recognize the scene that cover art comes from either. Interesting.

 

Here you go; two blu-ray review of TTRL--"5 star" according to blu-ray.com:

http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/The-Thin-Red-Line-Blu-ray/11300/#Review

http://www.dvdauthority.com/reviews.asp?ReviewID=6309

 

I don't trust Blu-Ray.com (they're an industry group whose purpose is to promote blu-ray), but it seems as if this disc is getting good reviews all around. Criterion doesn't often flub a release. TTRL is one of my all time favorites, so I'm really looking forward to seeing this again.

 

I'll be queuing this up but I'll have a hard time getting anyone else interested. Except for the Internet, I'm the only one I know who actually liked this.

 

I know how you feel. If I try and have a conversation about this one at work, they just wanna talk about Saving Private Ryan...