Less of more: Terrence Malick's movies
Lanton Mills (short film, 1969)
While even the Palme d'Or can't induce Terrence Malick to appear in public these days, there was a time when he'd even star in a film. Then again, his appearance in Lanton Mills was probably from necessity, as the 17-minute short was made when he was a first-year student at the American Film Institute. Following two cowboys' attempt to rob a bank - the then-unknown Harry Dean Stanton was the other lead - the film contains more comedic moments than the rest of Malick's films combined. It has never been widely circulated, and Malick donated a copy to the institute on the condition the film could only be seen by accredited academics.
Badlands (1973)
Malick started work on his first feature towards the end of his second year at the American Film Institute, and production finally began in the summer of 1972. A loose adaptation of the killing spree committed by 21-year-old Charles Starkweather and his 14-year-old girlfriend, Caril Ann Fugate, in Wyoming and Nebraska in 1958, Badlands stars Martin Sheen (above) and Sissy Spacek as tearaways shooting their way out of their small-town, dead-end lives in South Dakota.
Days of Heaven (1978)
Mostly set on the grasslands of the Texas panhandle - the film was actually shot in Alberta, Canada - Days of Heaven revolves around the love triangle between Bill (Richard Gere, left), a labourer who fled from Chicago after killing his factory foreman, girlfriend Abby (Brooke Adams), and the rich farmer (Sam Shepard) they work for. Bill's young sister, Linda (Linda Manz), provides the film's core with voiceovers about their lives and her reflections on what she sees. But what viewers see is an other-worldly masterpiece, as Malick infuses his film with magical sequences which illustrate what life was like in the American outback in the 1910s.
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The Thin Red Line marked Malick's return from a 20-year hiatus in Paris and Los Angeles, a period in which he worked on a few, eventually aborted, film projects and stage plays. While based on James Jones' novel about the US offensive on Guadalcanal during the second world war, Malick's film is a different animal, with the wartime details of the book replaced by a wealth of reflections on nature (the film begins with a shot of a crocodile), mortality and transcendence. A-list stars abound in the form of Sean Penn, George Clooney, John Travolta, John Cusack and Woody Harrelson (above), but they appear only briefly in an ensemble drama of which the director is the star.
The New World (2005)
Written in the 1970s, Malick's take on the Pocahontas-John Smith romance began well before the 1995 Disney animation film propelled an American cultural myth to international prominence. Boasting sterling turns from 14-year-old newcomer Q'orianka Kilcher as the native American princess and Colin Farrell (both below) as the British soldier, The New World lives up to its title with its fascinating sequences of the natural state of America before the European conquest. Equally staggering is Malick's sweeping depiction of Pocahontas' experiences in England during her visit to the country. The film was not a success at the box office.
