1. The Thin Red Line
“Every Man Fights His Own War”
Anna McCraith, Matthew Hamill, Natasha Walsh and John Hay
2. An Outline
An adaptation of the 1962 novel by
James Jones based on the conflict
between the American and Japanese
forces in the Solomon Islands in 1942.
The film follows the soldiers of the 25th Infantry Division, C Company, as
they fight to reclaim an airfield on the Pacific Island of Guadalcanal. If they
fail, there is nothing that can stop the Axis powers from continuing down
Indonesia to reach Australia.
3. Sergeant McCron Captain Gaff Sergeant Keck
Colonel Fife
The Secondary C Company
Sergeant Storm Private Train
4. Schematic Exploring various methods of visualising the life and movements of multiple characters
After researching the actual route used
in the Second World War we decided to
use a map as the basis for our
schematic, with the route line doubling
as a way to represent the the passage
of time.
5. Illustrating the characters
Issues that needed addressing:
● Number of characters
● Unseen subplots
● Presenting on and offscreen events
within a limited space
Solution:
Individual files for the
characters with a
character portraits,
colour coding, a
formal layout. Times
of onscreen
appearances clearly
marked and
referenced on the
map.
● Personal diary
● Medical journal
● Military file
Decided on a mixture of
the first and the third.
6. Schematic layout
Battered and/or bloodied files (depending on whether
or not the character dies on screen) containing the
character’s backstory and chronicles of their on and
offscreen actions and personal thoughts during the
timeline of the film. The pages contain each
secondary character’s own Hero’s Journey.
An unfinished version of the map/timeline showing
the times (in their respective colours) the times
when the characters (whose border colour on their
files match) are onscreen. The red line (read
clockwise) represents the route the soldiers take
and also the timeline of the film.
7.
8. Sergeant McCron
In the film McCron’s behaviour is unpredictable and
often dangerous.
This is attributed to an unstable personality and
previous war related trauma. Something likened to
shellshock but brought on through situations similar
to the scenario where in the original trauma was
sustained.
6 months prior to joining C Company McCron was
part of the Garrison in Milne Bay that was attacked
by Japanese marines The hard fought victory left
McCron as the only surviving member of the
american garrison originally 200 strong
His dangerous and irresponsible conduct as a leader
was reflected in his obscure behaviour, his
hallucinations of old members from his garrison and
eventual mental breakdown and discharge can all be
attributed to an acute PTSD sustained in Milne Bay.
He was admitted to Newgate Asylum for treatment
and care upon his return with Cpt. Staros
9. Captain Gaff
Captain Gaff is a strong willed man. His resilience
only matches his humanity.
While growing up young in New York his mother
and father were ordinary citizens. His younger
sister was his only friend. Sibling rivalry set him for
a leading position within his platoon. Soon after he
rose to stand beside to LT Colonel.
The bravery aspect of his character shines through
as he would volunteer for any mission if no other
men would stand and fight,
His voice outreached even other captains, his
influence on men extraordinary in ways.
Gaffs hope and disconnection from his humanity
help create his facade of inspirational captain. He
volunteers and succeeds in missions, this shows
through when he journeys with LT Colonel and
voices his opinions aloud.
This changes the LT Colonels mind on arrival of
seeing the situations at hand.
10. Sergeant Keck
He had an older brother who died in WW1 when a fellow soldier
accidentally pulled the pin of the grenade and blew himself up.
It gives Keck’s death an ironic twist, but it also means he
betters his brother’s killer because he cushions the
explosion with his own body, saving the lives of other
soldiers.
He took to comfort eating and recovered from obesity by chewing gum
to keep his mouth busy instead of eating lots so he could join the war
effort in WWII.
He carries a packet of gum with him into battle and is seen
eating a bit just before they land on the beach, which is a
tense moment that may have triggered a memory or an
imagined scenario of dying at war. We also see him chewing
him gum during battle scenes that portray Keck being in
danger.
He made a brief friendship with the leader of the attacking platoon,
Second Lieutenant Whyte.
Whyte is seen chewing some gum during the first battle
scene. Keck may have shared his gum with him.
Keck would be the only child remaining child of a (likely)
widow, so he is reclusive and wisely refuses to make friends
or even acquaintances on this mission to avoid heartbreak
and disappointment.
Whyte may have shown an offscreen moment of weakness
and opened up to Keck, so the two formed an “almost-
friendship”, though both recognise the dangers that would
entail on their emotional states, so they don’t converse like
friends normally would, but would show their affection for one
another through discrete gestures.
11. Colonel Fife
Fife was generally a nervous child and
from a young age he was beaten by his
alcoholic father to help ‘toughen him
up’. His fragile state of mind continued
with him as he grew up.
He thought going to the army would
lead to a better life and he wanted to
get away from his father and to have a
fresh start in life.
Being generally nervous and seeing
distressing things during the war, this
caused Fife to have a nervous
breakdown, seeing people that weren’t
there, hearing voices, having vivid
nightmares on events that had
happened.
12. Sergeant Storm
A humorous soul Sergeant Storm was a family
man, his sweet heart left behind before the war.
Before though as a young boy he dreamed of
racing into battle like his father who was a navy
man. Storm joined the army not knowing a war
imminent, still he would have signed up.
His younger years were not that wholesome and
he lived very rough in childhood. His humour
though helped pierce through the hardship and
struggle of his younger self.
No educational background he relied on his wits
and charm to get him through the dark days and
nights. Eventually he met his sweetheart and
together they were married within the month.
His humorous facade helped lighten the hearts of
men and soldiers. When Sergeant McCron went
AWOL, Storm was smiling the entire time taking his
gun and relieving him of stress.
The kind nature shows him not killing any japanese
though his stern look helps sell the reality of war.
13. Private Train
His pessimistic outlook and low self belief is a
combination of his abusive relationship with his
father and his devout religious beliefs. Having said
in the opening of the movie that as a boy he was
not above sleeping in the chicken coup to avoid his
abusive father.
Coupled together with a mother who was often ill
and an over Zealous minister on his local parish
gave Train a troubled and warped childhood
causing a lack of confidence and the inability to
empathise with others making him a target for
bullies and anyone looking to take advantage.
The campaign of Guadalcanal was a real coming of
age experience for Train from being wounded during
the battle for Hill 210 his slow recovery during which
he saw some harrowing and life changing things.
His guilt for killing another human being after his first
kill, and the new perspective brought to his life by the
war both inside with his faith and outside with the
conquest of Guadalcanal.
15. Melanesian Outlook At the beginning of the movie we see that one of the main
protagonists, Witt, had gone AWOL and was living with the
natives of the Solomon Islands. We decided to look into the
native Melanesian Culture and were instantly taken by the
decorative masks they create.
We decided to create an artefact based on the Melanesian
interpretation of Witt’s stories about the War against the
Japanese in the Pacific in the form of a mask.
16. Planning
We wanted to show the warrior
side of soldiers but were also taken
by the tagline of the film “every
man fights his own war”.
Using this we tried to fit a conflict
into the mask and settled on
combining two faces in one mask.
One human to represent the
humanity of the warrior and one
Twisted and beast like to represent
the horrors of war trying to destroy
the humanity of the warrior.
