Movie, thin red line
Just got finished watching "Thin Red Line" about Army activities in Guadalcanal. It is loaded with name actors. I have a bit of mixed opinions. First, movie is too artsy and psycho-analytic. There is no real dialogue but a series of monolog speeches. Scenes seemed isolated at first, probably on purpose. There are no artillery no background gunfire or aircraft attacking. But, it is very impressive in several ways. The combat scenes are the best I have ever seen, putting you in high grass as you assault uphill against machine gun nest, bullets ripping overhead and watching your buddy next to you get mowed down. Next you are pinned down under a bunker while dismounted enemy soldiers are attacking from around the bunker, all the time being peppered by machine gun bullets. Rapid fire semi-automatic Colt .45 handguns and Garand M1s demonstrated there merit, at least in the movie. If they had bolt action guns they would never have survived. Hardware appeared accurate for the time, including Japanese. Ships and landing craft appeared appropriate for the time, three aircraft on the airfield were shown, C-47, F4F, and P-39, all appropriate. Research on internet shows similarity with real life events. Army was apparently heavily involved in the battle.