"Who are you, that we live in all these many forms?"

    The question is posed in voice-over

    as the camera pans from within the

    waterways and canopy of a tropical

    forest, at the 32nd minute of Ter-

    hence Malick's film on the battle

    for Guadalcanal, The Thin Red Line.

    One year ago today, the University

    town down the road was attacked for

    the purpose of denying this question,

    as if whole sectors of this one plan-

    et could be, and reasonably ought to

    be reserved for only preferred forms

    of our common life. This is the gov-

    erning solecism of the President of

    the United States, and the source of

    his power. We have seen, here, how

    unsustainable it is. We recall this

    today, not against our will, but to

    share a place among our many forms.

Terrence Malick

Director

Screenwriter

The Thin Red Line

20th Century Fox, 1998©