Director: Terrence Malick
This is a beautiful, languorous movie full of golden light, bucolic wheat stretching into the horizon and the twilight heart of man. I think that it's trying to say something about how these are all inter-related, but I have to admit I do not understand it. I think to a degree it is a non-rational film, full of evocative moments and images that appeal to our emotions and appetites before it connects to our intellect.
The plot, which is undoubtedly important, if not the most important part of the movie, involves a man and his woman -- pretending to be brother and sister -- fleeing the city after he accidentally kills a foreman in an act of rage. Sound familiar? Later, the farm owner where they're working the harvest under these false pretenses will fall in love with the woman. Before the end, there will be a plague locusts, the land will be cleansed by fire, and there will be more death. Malick's film making is essentially from a Christian place, whatever he believes.
The thing everyone talks about from this movie is the imagery. It's undeniably lovely. There are scenes that powerfully evoke the feeling of a summer evening, and there are herons, and there are biplanes floating as if by magic off of the ground. It seems like Malick is searching to sample those moments of life that flit by unless we stop and take a breath and look around and notice them. If you have the patience to do that, you'll have the patience for this movie, and I think you'd enjoy it.
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