The Thin Red Line “Every Man Fights His Own War”

Anna McCraith, Matthew Hamill, Natasha Walsh and John Hay

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.

Sergeant McCron Captain Gaff Sergeant Keck

Colonel Fife

The Secondary C Company

Sergeant Storm Private Train

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.

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.

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.

Sergeant McCronIn 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

Captain GaffCaptain 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.

Sergeant KeckHe 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.

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.

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.

Private TrainHis 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.

Artefact

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.

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.

Bibliography

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