Terrence Malick, The Thin Red Line (1998); New World (2005)

Have you seen Days of Heaven yet? In comparison with Terrence Malick who waited for 20 years after Days to make The Thin Red Line, my delay of slightly over a month between blog posts pales by comparison. In order to make reparations for my delay, I give you a two for one today: a review of Malick's latest two films.

Both The Thin Red Line and The New World are a continuation of Malick's dialogue about humankind's place in the natural world. If you could go camping with any director, it would have to be Malick. He simply sees things in nature that your average person does not; while all his films discuss human-centric stories, the subtext always tackles the greater world surrounding the human characters.

Both Thin Red Line and New World begin with visual scenes of nature including thick, lush forests and other-worldly underwater environs. This idyllic natural world in both films is interrupted by the "human world" which has been tainted by war or famine or disease. In Thin Red Line, this transition is illustrated with the emergence of World War II ships rumbling over the horizon. In New World, man's harmonious convergence with nature ends with the appearance of the English settlers' boats in Jamestown.

Both these arthouse films have long run times (over 2 hours) which bombard you with ideas frequently conveyed through a haunting, poetic voiceover spoken by the main character. James Caviezel's soft-spoken philosophic voice-over in Thin Red Line was pitch perfect.

In the end, neither film achieved great financial success, probably because someone searching for a traditional war movie or a Cowboys-and-Indians movie would probably go elsewhere, and with good reason. Thin Red Line was released in the same year as Saving Private Ryan, and as such was overhadowed by the hype surrounding that film and its more conventional storytelling. In the case of New World, casting Colin Farrell in a serious role, or really in any role that's not about his hair is perhaps asking a bit too much.

In any case, the good news is that Malick will not wait another decade for his new film; Tree of Life is in post-production and due out next year. Let's hope that Brad Pitt, who stars in the lead role and who is not inexperienced when it comes to hair movies, takes the high road and elevates his acting to meet Malick's genius.