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The Line (1980)

Director: Robert J Siegel

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From Time Out Film Guide

Based on the true story of a Vietnam deserter who, after several suicide attempts in the army stockade, provokes a guard into killing him. As he crosses one line, fellow prisoners cross another, literally and metaphorically, by stepping out of parade in protest, and get life sentences for mutiny. Despite some powerful performances (Sullivan is outstanding as the senior stockade NCO), the film is top-heavy with a script whose painful honesty isn't always balanced: the strong story is over-compressed, notably in the media/civilian demonstration shit-storm that comes awkwardly out of nowhere into the closed world of the stockade. Well done up to a point and uncompromisingly relentless, but it makes you realise how good Costa-Gavras is at this kind of thing.

Author: JCo 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Robert J Siegel

Producer: Virginia Largent, Robert J Siegel

Cast: Russ Thacker, Lewis J Stadlen, Brad Sullivan, Kathleen Tolan, Jacqueline Brookes, David Doyle, Andrew Duncan full cast

Duration: 95 mins


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