A feast for the senses from the one of the best living US film directors

Rating: 10/10 (25 February 2000)

I have only seen Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line among Mallick's work but they have left a deep impression on my evaluation of Hollywood cinema. Mallick's film makes the earlier version of the Thin Red Line look pedantic and immature. He transforms the story into a virtual feast for the eyes, ears, and the heart. Nature and allegory play a bewitching spell on a serious filmgoer--take the example of sound of the wind on the grasses (dealt with only by camera in Days of Heaven. The flora and fauna rub shoulders with top actors in attempts to draw the viewer's attention. The storyline in the film does not merely revolve around seemingly disjointed episodes but even on postures of characters (Travolta's walk on the deck of a ship and Nolte's aggressiveness tell you more than what is spoken by them).
It is indeed interesting to note that it did not win a single Oscar but won the top Berlin film festival award.
Compared to Days of Heaven, this film is a testimony to Mallick's personal growth in the fields of application of sound and music in his cinema. In terms of cinematography, Days of Heaven holds more allure.
Here is one filmmaker who needs more recognition within the US. In Hyderabad, where I saw the film the posters mentioned the actors, not Mallick! The marketing of this gem of a film was flawed as the wrong people came to see the film, while those who would have loved to see it missed the opportunity altogether.