The Cinematheque

Terrence Malick, American cinema’s great philosopher-poet, confirmed his genius with this ravishing masterwork, one of the most beautiful films ever made. Set in the 1910s, it stars Richard Gere as Bill, a Chicago steelwork who accidentally kills his foreman and goes on the lam with his sweetheart Abby (Brooke Adams) and his teenage sister (Linda Manz), the film’s blind-spotted, raspy-voiced narrator. Finding refuge in the Elysian wheat fields of the Texas Panhandle, they’re hired as seasonal harvesters by an ailing farmer (the late Sam Shepard, RIP)—who falls in love with Abby, believing she’s Bill’s sister. Malick motifs are here in sublime supply: hushed, reverie-like voiceover; endless magic hour; the indivisibility of man, nature, and God (biblical locusts literally appear). Néstor Almendros’s impressionistic, Oscar-winning cinematography is a benchmark for the art form; Malick’s visionary prowess won him Best Director at Cannes.