Terrence Malick

Terrence Frederick Malick (/ˈmælɪk/; born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. His films include Badlands (1973), Days of Heaven (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998), for which he received Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award nominations, The New World (2005), and The Tree of Life (2011), which garnered him another Best Director Oscar nomination and the Palme d'Or at the 64th Cannes Film Festival.

Malick began his career as part of the New Hollywood generation of filmmakers with Badlands (1973), about a murderous couple on the run in 1950s American Midwest, and Days of Heaven (1978), which detailed a love triangle between two laborers and a wealthy farmer during the First World War, before a lengthy hiatus.

Malick's films have explored themes such as transcendence, nature, and conflicts between reason and instinct. They are typically marked by broad philosophical and spiritual overtones, as well as the use of meditative voice-overs from individual characters. Stylistic elements of his work have polarized film scholars and audiences; while many praise his films for their lavish cinematography and aesthetics, others fault them for lacking in plot and character development. His work has nonetheless ranked highly in retrospective decade-end and all-time polls.