Watching Malik's Most Recent Films
When I reviewed The Tree of Life (2011), I had no idea that Terrence Malick's career was moving in a radical new direction. After a rather traditional, though stylized, approach to Badlands (1973), Malick has demonstrated a preference for visual affect and sparse dialog rather than sticking to accustomed modes of narrative film-making. Days of Heaven (1978) featured extended shots of vast fields of grain in all kinds of wind and weather conditions. Thin Red Line (1998) treats the viewer to lush, lingering shots of Pacific islands with palm trees rustling in the wind. There is a clear narrative structure in each of Malick’s first four films but silence and nature are major aspects to them as well. The same can be said for The New World (2005), only the narrative is becoming more minimal in that work and, but for the historical underpinnings of the story, it might have vanished altogether, giving way the force of the many moments of artsy natural cinematography. All th