Pacific War Essay

The Thin Red Line, directed by Terrence Malick, tells a fictional story of the Battle of Mount Austen which occurred during the Guadalcanal Campaign. One goal the film fails to accomplish is depict the battle as it occurred. It is not a documentary of the battle of Guadalcanal and its goal centers on entertaining viewers like any other Hollywood movie. The movie gives off an inaccurate take of the battle and shows how the soldiers immediately moved in and assault the hill. When in reality the American military did not act instantly and waited months after the Japanese had captured it . America wanted to capture Guadalcanal because it offered a strategic position to place a base, sea port, and because it offered communication between the United States and Australia. This is because Guadalcanal served as a mainly as a defensive battle in the early stages of the war. The movie did not follow historical accounts of the real battle and skipped parts of the defensive stage of the battle in order for the film to be more action packed. The director chose to move right away to the defensive in order to entertain viewers like othe Hollywood movies . Although the director did not follow history as it actually happened. We can assume he portrayed the difficulties the soldiers faced during the war. However, Malick’s biggest mistake involved the way he depicted the difficulties soldiers faced. Guadalcanal had been a tropical hell for the soldiers and we can assume they had anything but fun. Men died of living conditions and the film fails to show that12.
Malick’s vision with this film followed his goal to entertain the viewers. He followed the novel from James Jones . Although the film contained inaccuracies according to history it still inc...

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...effect it has on humans. His film followed a realistic book that talked about soldiers and how the war deeply affected them. The main characters suffered from Post Dramatic Stress Disorder which is something that has affected soldiers all through history. The Great Raid also depicted war exactly as it occurred. It depicted how prisoners of war suffered in Japanese camps. It also shows how brutal the Jap soldiers reacted to American soldiers. The film focuses on showing the raid as accurate as it could be, because John Dahl focused on the realities of war in order to inform his viewers. The Thin Red Line focused on depicting the Battle of Guadalcanal. However, it fails to describe it as it occurred. The film fails to show how much soldiers suffered because of the environment. John Dahl’s main vision focused on entertaining viewers with a war film and that is it.