Can’t be bothered with that guy. Sounds like a hack.
Yeah, lots of people are wondering the same. At any rate, it seems pretty clear now that this is not (as was rumored) a new cut of the film. Even it does perhaps include some of the unused footage as supplementals, there’s no indication that they have been reintegrated.
i dont believe any of the outtakes will include footage from the lost characters any major(or famous) actor portraite in the film…actor s guild regulations and little things like money would prevent it….
however if criterion can convince Mr malick to expand his movie…
pretty solid stuff must be anyhow! shot by toll for malick! must be great even if its just leaves and grass and some birds….
I guess it is a montage reel of second unit footage, and some of the outtakes/improves of those that appeared in the film.
Martin Sheen isnt in any scenes, he wasnt even in Australia, he was thanked for reading through the script with Malick. Billy Bob read some VO for the film that wasnt used. Malick felt he sounded too much like his SlingBlade character which would have distracted from the power of the voiceovers.
Eight outtakes:
UNSCRIPTED: a scene between Storm and Witt where Storm philosophizes war (to Witt; “Yer just a fiddle in a band.”)
NOTE: This is the scene that Malick wrote up on the apart from the script, which John C. Reilly memorized, shot the scene over and over again, and then that night, Malick told him over dinner that he is never satisfied with how dialogue comes out. The scene was dropped. I am with Malick on this one, Reilly isn’t convincing enough here with Witt.
SCRIPTED Sgt. Becker, a squad leader, expresses unfairness about sending his guys to the front line. he requests that his squadron, the most qualified and experienced of the bunch is to be pulled off the front line and placed in reserve. This turned down by his superior. (probably cut so as not to interfere with the same altercation between Tall and Staros)
from the script, it is almost verbatim:
BECKER
Lieutenant, I was wondering if you
couldn’t put my platoon in company
reserve. My boys’ve had it tougher
than any of the other platoons.
They’ve had more casualties, and
are more under-strength. They
deserve a break (after a pause)
It ain’t fair to put my boys out
there all the time.
Band might have acceded to the request if Becker had not
spoken. Now he jerks his head up to stare at him.
LT. BAND
Fair? What’s not fair? What’s fair
got to do with it? No, I’m afraid
I’ll have to deny your request,
Sergeant. Your platoon is the best
we’ve got. They’ve got more
experience, they’re tougher, they
belong out in front.
BECKER
Is that an order then, sir?
LT. BAND
I’m afraid it is, Sergeant.
BECKER
In other words, the more of us get
killed gettin’ experience, the more
of us got to get killed usin’ it.
LT. BAND
As I said, fair has nothing to do
with it. Unfortunately. In a war
everything useful has to be used.
Here it’s me who decides what is
most useful where. Any other
questions, Sergeant Becker?
[note: This was a subplot of the film that had to do with animosity toward Lt.. Band which is extended to the next outtake. The squadron are tired of being chosen first, which is evident in the scene inside the hold of the ship in the finished cut “Oh Charlie Company is always gettin’ screwed.” etc. This will settle the argument that the full script was shot which would amount to a 5 hr flick, Malick took the whole shot film and then, as he used in an analogy, laid it on a surgeon’s table like a patient and did surgery. Added voice-overs, took out this scene add some second-unit footage etc etc]
SCRIPTED: A tent filled with soldiers: one drunk soldier complains about the competency of Lt. Band (who takes over for Staros), and he then confronts him. (this was most likely cut because of too many characters going on, introducing Band and his issues with the company would have been too distracting to the Witt storyline)
INT. MAZZI’S TENT – DUSK
Inside Mazzi’s tent everybody is busy knocking Lt. Band.
KIRK
beep stupid beep of a
lieutenant! Volunteered us! Taking
chances with us! beep with us!
You tellin’ me he wasn’t glad when
they relieved the Captain? He could
hardly keep from smiling. His mouth
was doin’ like a worm.
MAZZI
So tell him! What the *beep*’s the
good of sittin’ around here yackin’
about it?
Carni, slack-faced with malarial fever, and the leader of the
little Greater New York group of hep guys, looks over at him
and asks in a voice hollow with fever and cynicism:
CARNI
Why the hell don’t you do it
yourself, then?
TASSI
Yeah, why don’t yah?
KIRK
Yeah, why not? All’s you got to
lose is that P-F-C you might get on
the next promotions list.
MAZZI
(getting up drunkenly)
All right, by God I will.
He marches out of the tent and staggers through the coco
palms toward Band’s HQ tent. The others follow him at a
distance, sniggering happily, content to let him take the
dangerous chance alone. All, that is, except Carni,’ who
cannot get out of his bed.
4. SCRIPTED, SCENE 42: a bloody encounter between Private Bead and a Japanese soldier, he then freaks about the blood on his hands and seems lost in the jungle. This would be laced into context where he goes to the jungle to take a crap and runs into the enemy.
EXT. HILL 209 CREST – DAY
The trees begin three yards below the actual crest. Bead
steps into their midst. Halfway through with relieving
himself, he looks up and sees a Japanese man with a bayoneted
rifle moving stealthily through the trees ten yards away.
The Japanese man sees him too and, turning, all in one
movement, begins to run at him, but moving cautiously, the
bayonet on the end of his rifle extended. Bead, still
squatting with his pants down, gathers his weight under him.
In desperation, still not knowing which way to try to Dump,
all in one movement, Bead pulls up his pants over his behind
to free his legs and dives forward in a low, shoestring
football tackle when the Japanese man is almost to him,
tackling him around the ankles. This gives Bead time to hitch
up his pants again and spring upward once more until,
kneeling on his upper arms and sitting back on his chest, he
begins to punch and claw him in the face and neck.
Bead hears a high, keening SCREAM and thinks it is the
Japanese begging for mercy, until finally he slowly becomes
aware that the Japanese man is now unconscious. Then he
realizes it is himself making this animal scream. Sobbing and
wailing, he continues to belabor the unconscious Japanese
with his fingernails and fists. Then he rolls aside, seizes
the enemy rifle and, on his knees, raises it above his head
and drives the long bayonet almost full-length into the
Japanese man’s chest. The Japanese man’s body convulses in a
single spasm. His eyes open, staring horribly at nothing, and
his hands flip up from the elbows and seize the blade through
his chest. Bead withdraws the bayonet, throws the rifle from
him and falls down on his hands and knees and begins to vomit
and weep.
UNSCRIPTED Mickey Rourke (’nuff said) and Witt (the best of the batch) (very short, merely an encounter). Rourke displays a very complex range of emotions when Witt asks him if he misses home.
Malick flew Rourke to Australia, wrote this scene for him and it was removed at the objections of Mike Medavoy.
SCRIPTED: soldiers arguing about whether or not to kill the Japanese prisoners after the raid on the bivouac)
EXT. HILLSIDE – DAY
The prisoners are being led away by their guards, among them
Thorne, Coombs, Carni and Kirk. Whooping and hollering, they
descend the steep hillside in a sort of nonsensical hysteria
of cruel fun, slipping and sliding, booting the prisoners and
laughing whenever they fall. When one of the charges falls,
so ill that he can hardly move, however, they stop, to
discuss the situation.
THORNE
I say shoot the beep
COOMBS
You know the Colonel ordered us to
get them all back alive.
THORNE
So we’ll say he tried to escape.
COOMBS
Him? Look at him.
THORNE
So who’ll see him?
KIRK
I’m with Thorne. Remember what they
did to our guys on the Bataan Death
March.
COOMBS
Shorty gave us personal orders. You
know damn well he’s gonna check up
if one turns up missin’. What if he
has Intelligence ask these other
guys what happened to their buddy?
I don’t want to get in trouble,
that’s all.
The Japanese senses he has a champion in Coombs and bows
gratefully.
THORNE
Well, it’s either that or carry
him. I’m not about to carry no
beep Jap all the way back to
Regiment. Are you? Anyway, I
outrank you. I’m a corporal. I say
kill him. Look at him. Be doin’ the
poor beep a favor.
KIRK
2nd Battalion found where they’d
been eatin’ one of their own men.
Strung him up from a branch like a
deer. Took strips off his back, two
inches wide. They eat people.
Carni steps forward and puts in for the first time. He has
been thinking it over, the pros and cons.
CARNI
Coombs is right. Shorty’s sure to
check up if one is missin’. If we
shoot him or lose him, he’ll be on
our ass like a bullwhip. Might even
court-martial us.
Thorne stares at the Japanese man, then shrugs and grins
ruefully.
THORNE
Okay, I guess you’re right. It
looks like we carry him. All right
then! Come on! I’ll take a leg! Who
wants the rest of him!
SCRIPTED: Bell and Bosche (seeking counsel about his Dear John Letter ) and appointment to first lieutenant
INT. HQ TENT – DAY
Bell has come with the letter to CAPTAIN BOSCHE, the new
company commander. They are alone. The reaction he gets from
Bosche is astonishing, even to him in his state of despair.
As he reads, the Captain’s hands begin to shake until the
letter rattles. His face becomes as white as a sheet of his
own memo paper with a rage so great that it seems to bunch
his hard round little face into a tight little ball. Somehow
Bosche gets command of himself again.
CAPT. BOSCHE
You know, of course, that you do
not have to accede to this request.
Your wife can’t get a divorce or
separation without your official
permission.
(as Bell nods)
Something else. With a letter like
this in your possession, you have
the right to stop all allotments,
all payments, all government
insurance policies.
BELL
(tiredly)
I want to give it to her. I wanted
to ask you if you’d draft an
official letter from you for me,
giving her the permission.
CAPT. BOSCHE
I don’t understand. Why do you want
to do that?
BELL
Well, I guess it’s just that what’s
the point of being married to a
woman who doesn’t want to be
married to you?
Captain Bosche’s eyes have narrowed to slits, and with them
he stares at Bell profoundly.
CAPT. BOSCHE
Well, there are all sort of
attitudes and opinions, I guess.
That’s what makes the world go
round. You’ve got nothing to be
ashamed of.
BELL
Will you draft the letter for me,
sir?
CAPT. BOSCHE
I certainly will.
Bell turns to go.
CAPT. BOSCHE
Oh, Bell!
(holding out a sheaf of
papers) This came in yesterday, for you. I
held it up a little because I
wanted to write my own endorsement.
I just thought it’d be’ a
good time to give it to you. It’s
an order for a field commission
appointing you a First Lieutenant
of Infantry.
BELL
Really?
CAPT. BOSCHE
Really. I assumed that you would
want to accept it. I’ve already
written my endorsement.
BELL
Can I think it over?
CAPT. BOSCHE
Of course. Take all the time you
want. You’ve had several big things
today. And if you want to change
your mind about that other matter,
that will be all right, too… Be
strong.
BELL
Thank you, sir.
SCRIPTED: riverbed scene extended “Fife! Where’s Witt?”) from when Fife returns after Witt has distracted the enemy; Fife is pulled off the front line to the hospital and evacuated.
Fife finally gets his EVAC papers he was trying to get all along, he is sent off the line to be flown off the island.
Notes: All of these are shot to the script, so they are rough cuts and very unMalickian (with the exception of Coombs, which is powerful) since they aren’t cut away to second unit footage or abrubpt edits. Witt encounters Rourke’s character before he comes across Thomas Jane alone on the hill, and then meeting Private Storm in the cut scene.
Of them all, I feel that the Private Coombs scene and Rourke’s rogue sniper scene should have been left in. Coombs would have had given depth to his character, instead of just seeing him die in Fife’s arms. It also showed him to be a bad-ass with animal fear . . . .
Private Storm scene with John C. Reilly is too actorly . . . glad he cut that one.
Brett Anderson
I’m sure anyone who would be truly excited about a Criterion Collection release of ‘The Thin Red Line’ would also hope that the much talked about lost footage left on the cutting room floor (featuring Mickey Rourke, Martin Sheen, Billy Bob Thornton, Bill Pullman, etc.) would have some kind of inclusion with a new DVD release. I’m very interested to know what constitutes ‘Outtakes from the film’.