Due to its nature the war movie genre is rich in movies with all-star casts. There are many that I like. I was looking through the casts of quite a few and in the end I was not sure if I did prefer the cast of Black Hawk Down or the one of The Thin Red Line. Finally, making a very thorough comparison, including also minor roles, my winner is The Thin Red Line. There is only one actor I am not keen one and he may very well be the reason why some people do not appreciate The Thin Red Line. I am talking about the fanatic pro-lifer James Caviezel. But look at all the others and then tell me that you do not think this is an astonishing group of actors that has come together in one movie.
James Caviezel (The Passion of the Christ)
Nick Nolte (The Prince of Tides, Cape Fear)
Sean Penn (Dead Man Walking, Mystic River)
John Cusack (High Fidelity, 2012)
Elias Koteas (Shooter, Shutter Island)
Adrien Brody (The Pianist, King Kong)
Nick Stahl (Sin City, In the Bedroom)
John. C. Reilly (Gangs of New York, Magnolia)
Woody Harrelson (Natural Born Killers, The Messenger)
John Travolta (Pulp Fiction,Love Song for Bobby Long)
Ben Chaplin (Murder by Numbers, The Remains of the Day)
George Clooney (Oceans Eleven, O Brother, Where Art Thou?)
Jared Leto (Requiem for a Dream, Alexander, The Fight Club)
Miranda Otto (Lord of The Rings, War of the Worlds)
and many , many more.
Which is your favourite all-star cast? The Longest Day? A Bridge Too Far? The Great Escape or The Dirty Dozen?
All About War Movies 
I’ve seen this movie years ago, I honestly didn’t remember that cast are all awesome men.
That is actually why I made the effort to find a picture for all of them. Seen like this it is extremely impressive. Plus Jared Leto is the singer of my favourite band.
That is a great cast – what a waste! (LOL) I read many actors begged to work with the reclusive Malick (including Johnny Depp and Brad Pitt). His reputation was so high they would do anything for him, including wandering around the deck of a ship like Travolta was forced to do. Silly! You might to check on the several other famous actors whose contributions were left on the cutting room floor. The list includes Billy Bob Thornton, Martin Sheen, Gary Oldman, Bill Pullman, Viggo Mortensen, and Mickey Rourke!
I support “The Longest Day” for best all-star cast in a war movie. Here is the match-up as I see it. TRL on the left, TLD on the right.
Caviezel < Robert Wagner
Nolte Stuart Whitman
Cusack > Jeffery Hunter
Koteas < Peter Lawford
Brody < Richard Burton
Stahl < Roddy McDowell
Reilly Richard Todd
Travolta < Henry Fonda
Chaplin < Curt Jergens
Clooney Robert Ryan
Otto < Irina Dernick
My movie wins 10-4, sorry. I also have on my bench Rod Steiger, Edmund O'Brien, and Hans Christain Blech. Too bad your bench was not even able to make it into the movie!
Some of my list got screwed up! Here it is:
Caviezel < Robert Wagner
Nolte < Robert Mitchum
Reilly < Red Buttons
Clooney Robert Ryan
Harrelson > Richard Todd
Penn > Stuart Whitman
Cusack > Jeffery Hunter
Koteas < Peter Lawford
Brody < Richard Burton
Stahl < Roddy McDowell
Travolta < Henry Fonda
Chaplin < Curt Jergens
Otto < Irina Dernick
Thanks, it looked as if it was ok though.
Yes, yes haha. But The Longest Day has an astonishing cats as well. Would prefer A Bridge too Far though. I didn’t know about cut outs.
Trivia question: Who appears in both “The Longest Day” and “A Bridge Too Far”? He gets a big promotion from the first to the second.
Sean Connery, right?
[…] If you already want to know more about the cast here is an earlier post: My Favourite War Movie All-star Cast […]
[…] you can see in this older post, there are many other actors and characters in the movie. Some like Lt Whyte (Jared Leto) and Cpt […]