The Thin Red Line
Terrence Malick is one of the most respected director's of his generation who has enjoyed a career that has spanned over forty years.
In that time he has directed just six movies - being To The Wonder which is released this week.
So we take a look at the top three film by Malick during his successful career.
- Days of Heaven
Days of Heaven was released back in 1978 and was the second feature film of Malick's career - coming five years after his debut Badlands.
Malick has always made visually very beautiful films and Days of Heaven followed that tradition.
It is a film that shows Malick off as an artist as well as a filmmaker in what was one of the finest cinematic moments of the seventies.
A hot-tempered farm labourer convinces the woman he loves to marry their rich but dying boss so that they can have a claim to his fortune.
Richard Gere, Brooke Adams and Sam Shepard were all on the cast list and delivered terrific performances in what was a riveting film.
This love triangle story is incredibly simple and yet there is something so intriguing about it that it hooks you and draws audiences in.
Badlands was a film that showed Malick had real promise as a director and Days of Heaven saw him really deliver on that promise.
Malick picked up the Best Director Award at the Cannes Film Festival for the movie while the film itself was nominated for the Palme d'Or.
Click here to buy Days of Heaven on DVD
- The Thin Red Line
But after Days of Heaven Malick fans would have to wait twenty years until he say in the director's chair for The Thin Red Line.
The Thin Red Line is my favourite Malick film because it has a very different take on the Second World War.
The film is an adaptation of the autobiographical novel by James Jones and it follows the battle for Guadalcanal between U.S. and Japanese forces.
While the film does feature many battle scenes that you would expect to find in any war movie there is something profoundly different about The Thin Red Line that does set it apart from other movies in the genre.
There is a great philosophical aspect that hangs over the whole film as the characters question reasons behind the war and in particular life, as they potentially walk so close to death, leaving many issues unresolved when the credits role, much like life itself.
Malick's main theme behind the movie was to delve into the experience and psyche of soldiers at war looking at how they cope, or not, with what they see and how they band together under the most testing circumstances.
It is a very impressionistic view of war, that may not be the taste of many, as Malick delivers a truly beautiful movie that likens war to the harshness of nature using his beautiful surroundings to bring home his point, and only maverick director Malick could have shot a war movie in this way and got away with it.
The film won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and went on to be nominated for Best Film at the Oscars.
Click here to buy The Thin Red Line on DVD
- The Tree of Life
In recent years we have seen Malick work more frequently and he delivered another gem of a film in 2011 with The Tree of Life.
The Tree of Life is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's.
The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father.
Malick really does cast a spell with this movie as, much like The Thin Red Line, it is a film that raise philosophical questions without giving you too many answers.
It is a bold piece of cinema from Malick that possibly won't win everyone over but it is a mesmerising film that tackles some interesting ideas.
Once again The Tree of Life is a beautiful looking movie and Malick has become a master of using light and nature to really bring a film to life.
The Tree of Life was a critical hit when it was released and it won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.
Malick is going through a real purple patch in his career as To The Wonder is just one of the projects that he has on the horizon.
He has also completed work on Knight of Cups, Voyage of Time and an as yet untitled piece - never before as he made so many movies in such a short space of time.
Click here to buy The Tree of Life on DVD
To The Wonder is released 22nd February
Tagged in Terrence Malick