On the face of it, Terrence Malick's first feature in 20 years, a loose adaptation of James Jones' 1962 novel, seems a typical war epic. It boasts as many star cameos as The Longest Day or A Bridge Too Far.

The subject matter - the nightmarish experiences of an American infantry company fighting in the battle of Guadalcanal in 1942 - is also instantly familiar. Whether in epics such as Milestone's The Halls of Montezuma or in John Boorman's more intimately focused Hell in the Pacific, Hollywood has been this way before. Nevertheless, from the very first frame, it is obvious that Malick's film will be different from such predecessors.

The Thin Red Line shares the naive, dreamlike quality of Malick's earlier Badlands (1973) and Days of Heaven (1978). Its range of characters include Witt (James Caviezel), the idealist who refuses to conform to army discipline, Bell (Ben Chaplin), the soldier pining for the wife he fears may abandon him, Tall (Nick Nolte) the martinet colonel, and Welsh (Sean Penn), the cynical, hard-bitten veteran.

Lyrical and bloody by turns, The Thin Red Line is a film only Malick could have made. Geoffrey Macnab

Welsh - Sean Penn

You all know only too well - goddamn idiots - and that's what hurts so bad. This war is only beginning. There are ten other companies just like this one...There, in Washington, they've only got one thing in mind...send you off to war armed to the hilt. You're just a link in the chain. You're only a cog in a political machine. This isn't a war, this is a greased palm affair.

Witt - Jim Caviezel

He was alone. Everyone could have cared less about him dead or alive. That's how it was. He would die alone. He realized that it was all unreal, that he would sign his own death, but his fright and anxiety gnawed at him. He would show the others that he was a tough guy. Yes, he would.

Gaff - John Cusak

They were holed up together in a god-forsaken land where everything was totally irrational. They knew it each and everyone of them. They also knew they couldn't change anything. At the most they could give a little tenderness, show a bit of emotion for humanity, but it made no sense compared to their suffering.

Bell - Ben Chaplin

At a certain moment between yesterday and today at the same hour, Bell had had a revelation, without knowing it. That statistically, mathematically, arithmetically speaking, he - John Bell - hadn't a chance in hell of surviving this war. He would never see his wife again.

Tall - Nick Nolte

There wasn't a shadow of a doubt. The twisted emotions that seemed to escape his understanding could not be analyzed, yet they were far from over. This conscience revelation invaded him, paralyzed him, island after island, hill after hill, beach after beach, year after year. He was in a total state of consternation.

Keck - Woody Harrelson

As they were preparing to disembark, there wasn't one among them that didn't realize that theoretically a certain number of them would be left behind on the island, dead. Yet, each hoped that he wouldn't be one of them. It was frightening even to think about it.