The Father Nature of film

When something important happens in one of Terrence Malick's films, chances are it occurs amid blades of grass.

In "Badlands," Mr. Sargis (Warren Oates) punishes his daughter Holly (radiant, young Sissy Spacek) for seeing ne'er-do-well Kit Carruthers (Martin Sheen) by taking her dog out and shooting it — in a grassy patch. Later, as Kit and Holly run from the law, their Cadillac kicks up clouds of dirt as they cross the dry Montana prairie.

In "Days of Heaven," ill-fated lovers Bill (Richard Gere) and Abby (Brooke Adams) find plenty amid the waving tall grasses and wheat fields of the Texas Panhandle. Then comes heartbreak as Sam Shepard's laconic Farmer takes a fancy to Abby, and ultimately there's betrayal, as Shepard's character unearths the truth and allows his locust-infested fields to burn into stubble.

In "The New World," Malick's latest, barely five minutes pass before John Smith (Colin Farrell) and his fellow explorers tramp through the tall Virginia grass, their first steps into pre-colonial America. Smith's fateful meeting with Pocohontas (Q'orianka Kilcher) happens — where else — as he meanders through a field.

And 1998's "The Thin Red Line" was one long trudge through the grass. Its lengthy second act — one of the most extraordinary battle sequences ever put on screen — placed viewers in the midst of American troops' bloody advance up the lush green hills of Guadalcanal, the long grasses filled with lunacy and the stench of death.

Malick's work has been all but defined by these grassy passages, and the long blades serve to conceal ugly realities. That such horrors can be hidden in the tranquil scenery forms a core of Malick's heartbreaking masterworks.

Malick, after all, is American cinema's Man of Nature — the movie equivalent of Thoreau, or maybe Rousseau. It's easy to sympathize with Malick's existential characters as they battle against authority or each other. But in each of his films, the real conflict is between man (and it usually is a man) and the wild: the fundamental irrationality of human nature pitted against the utter chaos of Mother Nature.

Malick quietly casts the natural world as a major supporting character, and wraps his stories in it. Key moments unfold in the fields and woods and on the water, which probably explains why his few indoor scenes — like the hostage episode in "Badlands" — feel so painfully claustrophobic.

Malick is also cinema's J.D. Salinger, a reclusive intellect whose low public profile has underscored his aura of intrigue. A Waco, Texas native, he went from the oil fields to studying philosophy at Harvard, and eventually on to a Rhodes scholarship at Oxford. He left without finishing his doctorate and turned to the film world while teaching philosophy at M.I.T. Though hardly the path of a typical director, it might explain why his films are laced with dense, sometimes ponderous, narration that often seems to meander as the movie's narrative struggles to move forward. (The notable exceptions come from Malick's female characters: Spacek's dime-store-romance voiceover in "Badlands," and Kilcher's earth-mother talk in "New World.") More always happens than can be seen on screen.

Sadly, Malick's body of work is slim and his work habits quixotic. After 1973's "Badlands," it took him another five years to complete "Days of Heaven," in part because he ditched his script, let his cast improvise for nearly a year and took another two years to edit it. Then came a 20-year respite in France before "Thin Red Line," whose entire cast was sent off to boot camp before tackling their roles. Another seven years passed before "New World" was ready for the screen.

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