The Civilian
@tajiisawol.bsky.social
“Truth uncompromisingly told will always have its ragged edges…“
Just a gentle reminder that Doc solved the case, personally took out some really dangerous dudes, AND reunited a father with his daughter.
Bob, not so much.
Bob, not so much.
December 22, 2025 at 7:59 PM
Just a gentle reminder that Doc solved the case, personally took out some really dangerous dudes, AND reunited a father with his daughter.
Bob, not so much.
Bob, not so much.
I'm trying to think of other American actors who had an impactful role in more than one American war film since the 1970s, and while I'm sure there are some I'm not entirely sure if any of them were more memorable and haunting than John Savage in The Deer Hunter (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998).
December 21, 2025 at 5:25 PM
I'm trying to think of other American actors who had an impactful role in more than one American war film since the 1970s, and while I'm sure there are some I'm not entirely sure if any of them were more memorable and haunting than John Savage in The Deer Hunter (1978) and The Thin Red Line (1998).
Well, this is quite different . . . the relationship of Witt and Welsh in the novel and the film.
December 20, 2025 at 6:50 AM
Well, this is quite different . . . the relationship of Witt and Welsh in the novel and the film.
You gotta dig the irony that the color of the car which upends Tim the Christmas Adventurer is white.
December 19, 2025 at 10:45 PM
You gotta dig the irony that the color of the car which upends Tim the Christmas Adventurer is white.
“Eos Rotodoctolos. Rosy-fingered dawn. You’re Greek, aren’t you, Captain? Did you ever read Homer? We read Homer at the point. In Greek.”
December 18, 2025 at 10:44 PM
“Eos Rotodoctolos. Rosy-fingered dawn. You’re Greek, aren’t you, Captain? Did you ever read Homer? We read Homer at the point. In Greek.”
Send the world a hug ...
December 17, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Send the world a hug ...
Check the character names of two protagonists from James Jones’ novels:
1951‘s From Here to Eternity’s Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift)
1962’s The Thin Red Line’s
Private Witt (Jim Caviezel)
Pre-Witt and Witt
1951‘s From Here to Eternity’s Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift)
1962’s The Thin Red Line’s
Private Witt (Jim Caviezel)
Pre-Witt and Witt
December 17, 2025 at 1:56 AM
Check the character names of two protagonists from James Jones’ novels:
1951‘s From Here to Eternity’s Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift)
1962’s The Thin Red Line’s
Private Witt (Jim Caviezel)
Pre-Witt and Witt
1951‘s From Here to Eternity’s Private Prewitt (Montgomery Clift)
1962’s The Thin Red Line’s
Private Witt (Jim Caviezel)
Pre-Witt and Witt
Similar shots from the Edenic openings to Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998) and The New World (2005):
December 17, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Similar shots from the Edenic openings to Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line (1998) and The New World (2005):
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's beach scene in From Here to Eternity is genuinely iconic, but upon watching the film I sensed the real love story was in Lancaster's Sergeant Warden for Montgomery Clift's Private Prewitt.
December 16, 2025 at 2:32 AM
Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr's beach scene in From Here to Eternity is genuinely iconic, but upon watching the film I sensed the real love story was in Lancaster's Sergeant Warden for Montgomery Clift's Private Prewitt.
First Sergeant Welsh from the novel —
December 13, 2025 at 8:24 PM
First Sergeant Welsh from the novel —
From James Jones’ The Thin Red Line:
December 13, 2025 at 8:02 PM
From James Jones’ The Thin Red Line:
“Everything a lie... Everything you hear, everything you see... So much to spew out... They just keep coming, one after another... You're in a box... A moving box... They want you dead, or in their lie.”
December 13, 2025 at 5:39 PM
“Everything a lie... Everything you hear, everything you see... So much to spew out... They just keep coming, one after another... You're in a box... A moving box... They want you dead, or in their lie.”
James Jones’ sardonic dedication to The Thin Red Line:
December 13, 2025 at 5:30 PM
James Jones’ sardonic dedication to The Thin Red Line:
Last night, I stumbled upon an extraordinary essay on Malick’s The Thin Red Line by Simon Critchley from twenty years ago. He adroitly argues how The Thin Red Line is a war film like Homer’s The Iliad is a war poem, yet it would be too simplistic to read the film as simply anti-war,
1/2
1/2
December 12, 2025 at 9:24 PM
Last night, I stumbled upon an extraordinary essay on Malick’s The Thin Red Line by Simon Critchley from twenty years ago. He adroitly argues how The Thin Red Line is a war film like Homer’s The Iliad is a war poem, yet it would be too simplistic to read the film as simply anti-war,
1/2
1/2
There are striking similarities between The Thin Red Line's Private Witt and Captain John Smith from The New World.
Each man, near the beginning of their respective films, as soldiers in foreign lands, is imprisoned by their own group in the brig of a ship; each is released from punishment
1/3
Each man, near the beginning of their respective films, as soldiers in foreign lands, is imprisoned by their own group in the brig of a ship; each is released from punishment
1/3
December 12, 2025 at 6:42 PM
There are striking similarities between The Thin Red Line's Private Witt and Captain John Smith from The New World.
Each man, near the beginning of their respective films, as soldiers in foreign lands, is imprisoned by their own group in the brig of a ship; each is released from punishment
1/3
Each man, near the beginning of their respective films, as soldiers in foreign lands, is imprisoned by their own group in the brig of a ship; each is released from punishment
1/3
Adrian Brody as Corporal Fife, circa 1998-99, finding out he was largely cut from Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line, but central to Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.
December 10, 2025 at 11:44 PM
Adrian Brody as Corporal Fife, circa 1998-99, finding out he was largely cut from Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line, but central to Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut.
Trying to get this one off the ground. Haven't seen it since '99.
December 8, 2025 at 8:27 PM
Trying to get this one off the ground. Haven't seen it since '99.
1998: “Man, I gotta read Thin Red Line, Malick’s returning with it.”
2025: “Man, Malick’s Thin Red Line is forever lyrical, I‘m finally going to find out how much of it is from the novel.”
2025: “Man, Malick’s Thin Red Line is forever lyrical, I‘m finally going to find out how much of it is from the novel.”
December 7, 2025 at 10:39 PM
1998: “Man, I gotta read Thin Red Line, Malick’s returning with it.”
2025: “Man, Malick’s Thin Red Line is forever lyrical, I‘m finally going to find out how much of it is from the novel.”
2025: “Man, Malick’s Thin Red Line is forever lyrical, I‘m finally going to find out how much of it is from the novel.”
Melancholia deserves to be on the list.
December 5, 2025 at 11:58 PM
Melancholia deserves to be on the list.
I’m working backward through Brady Corbet’s directorial efforts, and Vox Lux appears to share The Brutalist’s nexus of history, violence, trauma, art, commodification, and the next generation.
December 5, 2025 at 11:10 PM
I’m working backward through Brady Corbet’s directorial efforts, and Vox Lux appears to share The Brutalist’s nexus of history, violence, trauma, art, commodification, and the next generation.
It’s my sense that how people respond to Judd Hirsch’s great-uncle Boris‘ short stay in The Fabelmans is closely aligned with how they feel about Spielberg’s movie overall.
December 5, 2025 at 1:22 AM
It’s my sense that how people respond to Judd Hirsch’s great-uncle Boris‘ short stay in The Fabelmans is closely aligned with how they feel about Spielberg’s movie overall.
This is what the ALETHIA looks like to me when Freddie comes aboard as a stowaway: the rational, above; the animal, below. That Anderson doesn’t show us the initial meeting between the two men & instead chooses the following morning to show their interaction, & connection, was potently seductive.
December 4, 2025 at 8:02 PM
This is what the ALETHIA looks like to me when Freddie comes aboard as a stowaway: the rational, above; the animal, below. That Anderson doesn’t show us the initial meeting between the two men & instead chooses the following morning to show their interaction, & connection, was potently seductive.
happened to catch Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain on a whim and the dynamic between the cousins was strongly reminiscent of the strained friendship in Old Joy.
November 30, 2025 at 2:31 AM
happened to catch Jesse Eisenberg’s A Real Pain on a whim and the dynamic between the cousins was strongly reminiscent of the strained friendship in Old Joy.