Terrence Malick MUST'VE been inspired by Tim O'Brien's 'The Things They Carried'

Although the Thin Red Line and the Things They Carried both talk about different wars, the similarities are prominent. For one, one of the chapters in O'Brien's book is titled 'How to Tell a True War Story' and it seems Malick followed his direction with great amount.

"A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggests models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done."

If this doesn't perfectly describe the Thin Red Line then I dont know what does.

There's also a few instances throughout the book that describe memorable/disturbing images from the film. For example:

"He noticed a guy lying next to him in the sludge, completely buried except for his face."

Yep. Definite inspiration. The book is fantastic and I highly recommend it. The film is also in my top 5 films of all time.