The Thin Red Line...Finally

Amazing movie. Shame the Blu doesn't haven't any deleted scenes but at least there's some docs and a commentary.

Well, after viewing the outtakes featuring John C. Reilly (Storm), Danny Hoch (Carni), Larry Romano (Mazzi), and Paul Gleeson (Band), I can now understand why the actors had their roles reduced to almost nothing. They are embarrassingly bad.

The Clooney/Chaplin scene -- where Bell discusses his wife's letter with Capt. Bosche -- is straight from Jones' novel, verbatim, and very well acted. Had it been left in the film I don't think people would have minded the star cameo.

Mickey Rourke, Nick Stahl and Don Harvey (CASUALTIES OF WAR) are all excellent and I wanted to see more of them.

Bill Pullman and Lukas Haas' scenes have not been included.

So are those - extra Clooney, Rourke, Stahl etc - in rough form or have they been restored?

Well the Best Buy website claims it is available in Monroe, Louisiana (my home) so the idea it would not be in the Austin stores seems unthinkable.

Yeah...and I don't have a blu ray player either. Shit. Dropped the ball on that one.

Rough.

The casting documentary includes auditions with actors performing scenes from the novel that were never used in the film (Stahl knocks it out of the park, as does Tim Blake Nelson). So it's almost a continuation of the outtakes.

The interview with Kaylie Jones is superb. I'm really impressed with the extras overall.

A huge fuck you to Best Buy, whose website lied about the availability of TTRL at several local stores.

Wasn't at mine either.

Also, a ton of other shit was missing. No Get Him To The Greek, no American Beauty. I wonder if there was a massive shipping cock-up.

I had to go to Barnes & Noble.

The image on the Blu-Ray for this is simply breath taking. Holy shit. Sound is incredibly impressive too. (I like the message that says that Terrence Malick suggests you watch the movie loud when you go and play it).

I'd have this right now...IF SOME MOTHER FUCKER HADN'T STOLEN IT OFF MY DOORSTEP! I will find them...they will pay.

Incredible Blu-Ray. The best transfer I've seen since No Country for Old Men. Grain is present, but not noisy, leaving an awesome sheen. Colors pop to the point of reality. Sound is, as expected. When you press Play on the menu, you get a message:

"Director Terrence Mallick recommends that 'The Thin Red Line' be played loud."

Hooah, Master Mallick!

The editing portion of the doc is fascinating.

Just had to slip it in last night to peek at the A/V quality (long day, couldn't do a 3 hour film). Holy shit! Jaw-droppingly gorgeous.

Just received this alongside the Days of Heaven and 400 Blows blu-rays, and it's quite fantastic. The picture quality is just as stunning as everyone has already claimed, some really impressive visuals.

Weirdly though, this is the first time I've ever noticed the microphone cutting in during Nolte's voice over. I guess it's the ambient noise in the recording room, but having caught the movie in theatres and countless times on DVD this is the first time I've found it so detectable. Perhaps one of the downsides to an improved DTS track but otherwise a flawless presentation, and it's really only with Nolte (primarily his parts on the boat at the beginning).

Really cannot recommend this disc enough, it's maybe my favourite blu-ray at this point.

Yep, does not disappoint.

Started diving into the supplemental material last night and it is excellent. A truly fascinating and candid (from everyone else's perspective, anyway... Malick remains silent) look into his process and the production of this film.

Not that I'd expect anything less from Criterion.

Did you try Waterloo Records? They tend to have pretty much everything, right?