The Thin Red Line, help!

[Mrguy123]

I have read half of the book and saw the movie on "Thin Red Line" and need to come up with something to write about that would last 5-6 pages. I really like the part where bead goes "relive" himself in the woods and gets interrupted by the jap, but I am not sure what question/s I could answer that would last 5 pages. Any help here from the experts would be great!!!

[Nico87]

I have the book myself, but I haven't come to read it yet, but I've watched the movie about 8 times, and it's one of my favourite war-movies ever. I don't know about the book, but the movie is trying to tell us that.. well it's hard to describe, that the essence of life is still around in the midst of carnage. The scene with the natives and the children running around comes to mind. Well, just the happiness amongst them. It's humanism at it's best, at least for me (I'm sure humanism is the wrong term, but anyway). E.g. the scene where Capt. Staros begs Lt. Col. Tall (Nolte) to change his orders from a direct assault to instead try to flank the hill, and his splendid arguments for it, just to be faced by Tall's stubborness and hunt for glory. It shows that men in war are not machines of war. There are emotions everywhere. Another scene is the part where Pvt. Hills looks at the bird dying. It's so gripping. And then we have the scenes with Pvt. Bell and his girlfriend/wife, at least I think it's Bell.

Anyway, enough babbling. I'm not sure what questions I'd prefer to be asked and then write a six-page answer to it, but it would probably be descriptions of the different peoeples' characters, beginning with Capt. Staros.

In my opinion, from a historical fact point-of-view, Guadalcanal isn't the easiest battle to dig around to find a solution to as to why it took place. It was pretty simple. The Japanese air-base. But seeing as your task is not about why the battle took place, I really don't know what would fit.

My questions would be;

How would you describe Capt. Staro's personality and his basic view on the battle itself?

How would you describe Pvt. Witt's general opinion on war, and why do you believe he felt comfort in being on Guadalcanal and participating in the battle? (I personally believe that he did).

What do you think the movie/novel is trying to tell us?

Now, I could write 20 pages based on those 3 questions, but I'm not going to because I prefer to keep the images for myself. I think about them every time I watch the movie, but it's not something that I would put on paper. I like them better in my head where I can make up all sorts of reasons and views for this and that.

This is probably not of any use to you, but I wish you good luck nevertheless!

[Mrguy123]

I appreciate your input very much. Your questions actually did help me out a bit. I believe the question, what message does the movie/novel tell you, could actually be one of the questions I would use. Thanks a lot for your input, highly appreciated.