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Terrence Malick

larryselbows

larryselbows

Banned
I have been going through watching his films and each one so far has been excellent. Anybody else on here a fan?

A list for those of you that may not be familiar: Badlands, Days of Heaven, The Thin Red Line, and The New World.

I guess he has only made 5 movies in his 40 year career but he is notorious for putting 5+ years into his films.

Here's his upcoming "Tree of Life" I think it's going to be great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXRYA1dxP_0
 
Based on the torture that is The Thin Red Line I'll have to pass on his other works. I wanted a war movie dammit and all I got was a bunch of reflective rambling. Meh.
 
No kidding. I hated the Thin Red Line. Maybe it got better as it went on, but I was stunned the movie had a director as it seemed to have no direction whatsoever.
 
I suppose I can understand where you guys are coming from. I think that Malick puts a lot of philosophical elements into his films. I noticed his characters commonly reflect or comment on the "two paths" in life or having one character state "wish I could see the world as you do." He was a philosophy professor at MIT in his pre-director career. Hope you guys give his other films a chance, I think they're great!
 
Yeah, I certainly wouldn't write off a director's whole filmography over one film. Badlands looks quite interesting. I'll keep it in mind on my next Blockbuster trip.
 
I thought The Thin Red Line was excellent.

It's a shame it was overshadowed by that over-rated, cliche driven Saving Private Ryan which came out the same year.

Badlands is also a solid movie although I never thought Martin Sheen was the right choice for the "Starkweather" character.

Haven't seen the others.
 
Only saw TTRL which like others have said, rambled. Show, don't tell. That's moviemaking 101 yet Malick couldn't get his point across subtly without beating you over the head with narration that shoves his POV of life (or rather, the book's author) down your throat. Pretty sad really because many of his points are utterly beautiful, as is his camerawork, yet TTRL made me want to puke with its sort of self-aggrandizing feel. That said, I never read the book which was evidently somewhat of a fixture in the 60's in HS English classes so perhaps it was tough to escape that sort of narration really. I wanted to see The New World and just never did. Love Bale, Plummer and Farrell. The latter is vastly underrated as an actor. I will see The Tree of Life, especially since it looks like somewhat of a departure for Pitt , but to be honest, even the trailer meanders and eerily reminds me of TTRL.
 
Haven't seen Malick's films although Badlands has a pretty vaunted reputation and is the subject of one of Pauline Kael's most famous negative reviews.

KrazeeEyezKilla said:
Show, don't tell. That's moviemaking 101
Click to expand...

Disagree. Many of the best scenes ever committed to film could be described as exposition heavy.

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3vbCxj2ifs

As with almost all artistic endeavors, any time you set down a hard rule the best in the business are going to do their damndest to break it.
 
"The Thin Red Line" was difficult to sit through, but I liked "Badlands". It's be 30 years since I've seen it, but it was pretty good and it was used as the title for one of my favorite Springsteen songs.
 
Sirkickyass said:
Haven't seen Malick's films although Badlands has a pretty vaunted reputation and is the subject of one of Pauline Kael's most famous negative reviews.



Disagree. Many of the best scenes ever committed to film could be described as exposition heavy.

Example:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3vbCxj2ifs

As with almost all artistic endeavors, any time you set down a hard rule the best in the business are going to do their damndest to break it.
Click to expand...


Obviously there can be exceptions, many exceptions, but as a general rule of thumb, the "rule" holds true. In the case of "Network," one character is at least selling it to another...selling it to me, the viewer. In the case of TTRL, Malick pushes his preachy, existentialist world views on me...it was tough not to take it that way being as it was through JC's whiny narration. Just my initial reaction upon my first and only viewing when it opened years ago though.
 
In short, I think my complaint with him (at least TTRL and the trailer for TTOL) is much like yours with Christopher Nolan. I think we both respect them as filmmakers and what they bring to the table but Malick's subtly (for me) in his storytelling is sorely lacking, much like Nolan's usage of sound/music is for you.
 
Like I said, I haven't seen TTRL I'm just disputing that such a "rule" could ever be really a rule. Too many scenes/films would have to be eliminated for it to be true.

Does the opening scene of "Manhattan" violate the rule because it has several minutes of Woody Allen narration?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0o6QKpNK9Cc

Or what about the opening scene of Sunset Boulevard?

Or story-book style films such as the Royal Tennenbaums?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1uA1TMnsTM


It's a genre composed almost uniquely of the marriage of visual images with a number of other elements, one of which is speech and narration. Too hard to take real options off the table.
 
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