The Soul Announces Itself: Terrence Malick's Emersonian Cinema

136 Pages·2013·0.4 MB·English

by  Fech, Bill

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF

Bill Fech for the degree of Master of Arts in English presented on May 31, 2013
Title: The Soul Announces Itself: Terrence Malick’s Emersonian Cinema

Abstract approved:

Jon R. Lewis

This thesis takes an auteurist approach to the films of director Terrence Malick by
reading them through the spiritual philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson. I
establish Malick’s thematic concern with the human struggle to achieve better
existences in a broken material world, a concern buoyed by his signature aesthetic
that includes expressive voice-overs and sublime photography of nature. I close-
read each of Malick’s six films, drawing upon tenants of Emersonian philosophy
to reveal Malick’s expression of transcendent events of the soul against brutal
earthly realities.
In chapter one I put forth Badlands and Days of Heaven as Emersonian
“cautionary tales” for lives lived bereft of meaningful communion with the world.
Chapter two sees The Thin Red Line as Malick’s turn toward an explicitly
philosophical cinema where the spiritual/material divide becomes paramount. In
chapter three I focus on The New World and The Tree of Life as refined versions
of Malick’s renewed philosophical interests and style. I conclude on Malick’s
latest film, To the Wonder, finding that despite his depictions of an increasingly
fractured modern world, Malick retains an Emersonian faith in the individual’s
ability to spiritually transcend material life.
©Copyright by Bill Fech
May 31, 2013
All Rights Reserved
The Soul Announces Itself: Terrence Malick’s Emersonian Cinema

by
Bill Fech

A THESIS

submitted to

Oregon State University

in partial fulfillment of
the requirements for the
degree of

Master of Arts

Presented May 31, 2013
Commencement June 2013
Master of Arts thesis of Bill Fech presented on May 31, 2013.

APPROVED:

Major Professor, representing English

__________________________________________________________________
Director of the School of Writing, Literature, and Film

__________________________________________________________________
Dean of the Graduate School

I understand that my thesis will become part of the permanent collection of
Oregon State University Libraries. My signature below authorizes release of my
thesis to any reader upon request.

__________________________________________________________________
Bill Fech, Author
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you to Dr. Jon Lewis, whose critical eye and supportive voice brought this
thesis to life. With each conversation and margin comment, his honest feedback
drastically improved my writing and thinking. I will miss working with him.
Thank you also to Dr. David Robinson and Dr. Peter Betjemann for entertaining
my office hour (and often out-of-office hour) chats about Malick, Emerson, and
the thesis process. They were very generous with their time and enthusiasm.
Gratitude also goes to Dr. Guy Wood for serving as my Graduate Council
Representative. I am also grateful to my friend, Allen Sprague. Writing a thesis
can be a lonely process—he made it less so. Finally, thank you to the wonderful
faculty, staff, and fellow graduate students at the School of Writing, Literature,
and Film, who gave me the best two years of my life.
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

Introduction: The Poet…………………………………………………...1

Chapter One: Paradise Glimpsed—and Lost: Failed Transcendence
in Badlands and Days of Heaven………………………..21

Chapter Two: One Big Soul: The Thin Red Line……………………….58

Chapter Three: Nature and Grace: The New World and
The Tree of Life………………………………………….77

Conclusion: To the Wonder and Beyond…………………………….109

Notes……………………………………………………………………………119

Bibliography……………………………………………………………………124

Filmography…………………………………………………………………….128
The Soul Announces Itself: Terrence Malick’s Emersonian Cinema

Introduction

There is a property in the horizon which no man has
but he whose eye can integrate all parts, that is, the poet.

--Emerson’s Nature1

The Poet

Terrence Malick is one of the American film industry’s most enigmatic
and intriguing contemporary filmmakers. His six films—Badlands (1973), Days
of Heaven (1978), The Thin Red Line (1998), The New World (2005), The Tree of
Life (2011), and To the Wonder (2012)—reveal a distinct, philosophical vision.
His cinema depicts the innate human quest to discover better worlds, either as
physical locations or as spiritual sanctuaries.
Malick is a true auteur whose thematic pre-occupations are presented in a
unique, signature visual style—a highly stylized aesthetic that combines
expressive voice-over narration, sublimely photographed images of nature, and
contemplative narrative structures. These qualities, argues scholar Geoff Andrew,
contribute to his standing as “the modern American cinema’s great poet-
philosopher, whose images…speak of a fascination with—and, perhaps a faith
in—the transcendent.”2 Lloyd Michaels, author of the book Terrence Malick,
agrees that he represents “a stubbornly romantic artist in depicting isolated
individual’s desire for transcendence.”3 Malick thrives, within the confines of the
2

Hollywood arena, as a rare meditative voice on the struggle to locate idealized
existences.
Michaels’ notion of Malick as a stubborn romantic is borne out in the
films. In Badlands, renegade lovers see the open spaces of Montana as a
paradisiacal reprieve during a bloody crime spree. Days of Heaven similarly
features a young couple on the run for whom a rich homesteader’s wealth
promises salvation from arduous migrant labor. The World War II film The Thin
Red Line interrogates the basis for conflict in human nature as soldiers yearn for
calm amidst the horror at Guadalcanal. The New World, a rendering of the
Pocahontas story, depicts European colonizers’ founding of Jamestown while the
native princess attempts to retain her spiritual ties with Mother Earth. The Tree of
Life renders three time eras—the present day, 1950s suburbia, and pre-history—as
continuums where only grace mitigates the violence of life. And To the Wonder
investigates the efficacy of love in a fragmented modern world.
Eschewing explanatory backstories, Malick often gives his protagonists
symbolic importance rather than sharp specificity. Many major characters are
never identified by name, such as the farmer in Days of Heaven or the parents in
The Tree of Life. Multiple, overlapping voice-overs and fragmentary dialogue,
often whispered and indistinct, further prevents viewers from perceiving
individuals in his films. Standard Hollywood practice builds characters to ferry
along a film’s action; Malick’s use of character positions audiences at a kind of