Themes
A number of themes run throughout Malick's filmography with the most prevalent theme being that of nature. Obviously the natural world features heavily in his work but it runs a little deeper than just being the setting for the visuals. Malick's focus on naturalism was evident in Badlands and Days of Heaven but became an even more essential part of his films in the Thin Red Line. In the Thin Red Line the main character ponders the " war in the heart of nature", juxtaposing WWII with images of the natural world around the atrocities. In the New World, Malick arguably takes it even further as he weaves together the meeting of Old World and New as English explorers are faced with the vast wilderness of North America. The Tree of Life again places even more emphasis on nature, devoting nearly ten minutes to a scene following the formation of the natural world. Another common theme in Malick's films is both the pursuit of and losing of paradise. Badlands shows Holly falling for Kit, who arguably represents the loss of American innocence. Days of Heaven shows the last days of the American frontier as well as telling a tragic love story. Thin Red Line opens with soldiers who have deserted the army, living in an idyllic native village before they are forced to return to the brutality of war. The point is driven home later in the film when scenes of Guadalcanal's natural beauty is shown side by side with terrible human conflict. The New World shows a nearly untouched wilderness right as the first European explorers land on its shores. The Tree of Life contrasts scenes from childhood with scenes from a dissatisfied adulthood. Malick is regarded as an extremely spirituality-minded director and many have debated what his religious beliefs are as he rarely if ever consents to interviews. Malick's later films tend to be more spiritually minded than his first two films with the New World, Thin Red Line, and Tree of Life probably being more meta-physical than the others. Being a former philosophy professor, philosophical themes run through all of Malick's works. While still in academia, Malick published a translation of the works of Heidegger, who in short said that mankind is unique because it can question its existence, who has been extremely influential on his filmography.