The Elusively Enigmatic Terrence Malick

After nearly 40 years, Terrence Malick remains the J.D. Salinger of movie directors. More secretive and elusive than Stanley Kubrick, he remains deeply shy and refuses to have his photograph taken for publicity purposes. To date he has only made five movies (and is currently working on his 6^th) and was famous for taking a 20 year break from filmmaking. Nevertheless he is still considered a legendary and genius moviemaker in Hollywood and the rapturous praise for his work remains high.

After working for years as a freelance journalist and screenwriter, Terrence got his first directing job in 1973 with "Badlands" starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Loosely based on the real-life murder spree of Charles Starkweather and his girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate, what stood out was how Malick balanced the cold-blooded violence with such a dreamlike quality. In essence, "'Badlands" is a fairy tale romance albeit a dark one. Even as Sheen's character sociopathic behavior gets worse, there is a beautiful feeling to his relationship with Spacek which makes this directorial debut one of the most unforgettable.

With 1978's "Days Of Heaven," Terrence made one of the most beautiful movies one could ever hope to see. It also marked the beginning of his telling stories through images more than words. Much of it was filmed in the "magic hour" when the sun sets and after it has set, and he used natural light for interior shots. This method led the film to go way over budget, and Malick spent two years in post-production editing it; that's about as long as James Cameron had on "Avatar." He also experimented with the voice-overs and ended up getting rid of much of the dialogue, making it seem like a silent movie almost.

Making "Days Of Heaven" proved to be exhausting for Malick, but he started working on another project dealing with the origins of life. Then one day, he didn't' show up to work and thus started his 20 year absence from film directing. This remains the most mysterious part of Terrence's life as people are still desperate for details about it. Many assumed he was distancing himself from Hollywood, living in Paris and then later in Austin, Texas. He was said to have started teaching and was still writing screenplays, all the time remaining in seclusion from the prying eyes of the world.

Terrence finally returned in 1998 with "The Thin Red Line," and just about everyone in Hollywood wanted to work with him. As obsessive and meticulous as ever, he took hours transporting cast and crew to filming locations, shot over a million feet of film, and spent seven months editing it. The end result was the most philosophical war movie ever made. For some it was maddeningly meandering and never quite sure what it was about, but for others it was a once in a lifetime masterpiece.

With "The New World" and "The Tree Of Life," Terrence Malick continues examining themes of human's relationship to nature and meditates on the meaning of life. That he has lasted this long through only a handful of films is a testament to his status as a visionary and the respect he still receives from generations of artists. Even with Hollywood changing movies to where they are lifeless products, Malick still makes films his way and without interference from studio executives. Only so many other directors are lucky enough to get that privilege, but his movies are so beautifully unique that making them conventional would be an unforgivable insult.