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The film marked director Terrence Malick's return to filmmaking after a 20-year absence. He wrote the screenplay based on the novel by James Jones. It features a large ensemble cast, including performances and cameos by notable actors, including Sean Penn, Adrien Brody, George Clooney, John Cusack, Jared Leto, and John Travolta. Reportedly, the first assembled cut took seven months to edit and ran five hours. By the final cut, all footage of the performances by Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman, Bill Pullman, Lukas Haas, Jason Patric, Viggo Mortensen and Mickey Rourke had been removed. The film was scored by Hans Zimmer, with additional music from John Powell and shot by John Toll. The film grossed $98 million against its $52 million budget. Critical response was generally strong and the film was nominated for seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Original Score and Best in Sound Mixing. It won the top prize Golden Bear at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival. Martin Scorsese ranked it as his second favorite film of the 1990s on At the Movies. Gene Siskel called it "the greatest contemporary war film I've seen." |