10 Amazing Movies With Weirdly Distracting Castings

6. All The Cut Roles - The Thin Red Line

The Thin Red Line is up there with the greatest war films ever made, but it's also one that had an infamously difficult production. There's no arguing with the finished results, which are exceptional, but the production process did leave some some peculiar wounds - most noticeably in the form of several actors having their roles drastically cut.

The most noticeable casualty of the film's edit was Adrien Brody, whose character, Geoffrey Fife, was originally intended as the lead. Director Terrence Malick's final cut reduces Brody to a background figure (a fact Brody didn't discover until a press junket before the film's premiere), and knowing those behind-the-scenes changes does make his presence more peculiar.

George Clooney, who shows up in a minor role in the film's closing scenes, was also meant to have a bigger part, while Mickey Rourke was excised from the final cut entirely.

None of this takes any of the shine away from The Thin Red Line, which is a true genre masterpiece. If anything, seeing prominent actors like Clooney and John Travolta make such brief appearances adds to its charm. But it is one of those where knowing the behind-the-scenes drama does occasionally encroach on repeat viewings.