Malick and Meditation

Rating: 9/10 (1 February 2007)

How Terrance Malik began life as a director of a movie like Dirty Harry and developed into the director of The New World must be a fascinating story. Some directors don't grow (thinking Spielberg) so to me they cannot be artists. Malik is an artist, a genius in the art of film, totally underrated and ignored by Hollywooden, as are all the true greats. This movie is a meditation on love, war, and conquest. It could be Buddhist, it could be Hindu, it could even be Scientology; but its essence is that of the meditation. It floats though the eyes into the mind and into the spirit. I too love this movie - when I watched "The Thin Red Line", I couldn't believe I was watching a war movie. That "war" movie attuned me to the environmental devastation that was is - in 60's language, "it raised my consciousness". I had already hated war, but Malik helped me analyse why. Now Malik attunes me to the conquest of this mystic land. I like far in the north, with many, many trees. Malick captures their language - he can almost translate that language to us...