Top 10 performances from the films of Terrence Malick

10. Linda Manz, "Days of Heaven" (1978) 
We're guided through Malick's second feature by a young narrator named Linda, sister to an opportunist named Bill, played by Richard Gere. Manz comes in as the first entry on this list because she is the beacon of innocence throughout Days of Heaven. Her narration, often unreliable, is insightful, playful, and at times puzzling. As her brother and his lover make advances toward thwarting a rich farmer, Manz' laid-back observations ring honest and true throughout the film.

9. Jessica Chastain, "The Tree of Life" (2011)
Chastain is someone who I'd previously thought wouldn't make the list, but given the more I think about the film and her angelic performance, she deserves a spot here. An actress who is about to breakout, Chastain's Mrs.O'Brien is the perfect contrast to her authoritative husband played by Brad Pitt. Completely inhabiting the role of "grace" as a loving and forgiving force, Chastain leaves a quiet, yet impacting mark on the viewer.

8. Elias Koteas, "The Thin Red Line" (1998)
Always reliable in any role, Koteas' performance as Staros, a Captain facing inner turmoil over leading men to their death, is one of the standouts in Malick's third feature. Staros is probably the most identifiable character in the film, as his doubts and fears creep up and get the best of him. His rift with a particular supervisor serves as the crux of Staros' frailty. Koteas delivers mostly on body language, as he suffocates under the weight of his own duty.

7. Martin Sheen, "Badlands" (1973) 
Sheen's Kit Carruthers is a James Dean esque rebel molded in the makeup of a typical Malick character. Sheen was able to blend bold charisma with disillusionment and recklessness, proving that he would be a huge talent in the years following Badlands. Ultimately, what makes Sheen great is his natural portrayal of a sociopath with a hunger for grisly violence, while also blindly leading an innocent youth down his own path to hell.

6. Hunter McCracken, "The Tree of Life" (2011)
Like Linda Manz before him, the young Hunter McCracken is further proof that Malick is dynamite when it comes to dealing with young non-actors. While the film often shifts viewpoints, it's mainly seen through the eyes of young Jack O' Brien, the oldest of three boys. McCracken hits all the right notes, as his awkward adolescence causes him to question the mysteries in life.

5. Colin Farrell, "The New World" (2005) 
Farrell's portrayal of John Smith relies less on bravado, and more on the quiet, meditative quality that Farrell brings to the role. Perhaps an unlikely fit for the role, Farrell proves that when in good hands, he is a wonderfully potent actor. All of Smith's ponderings, heartbreak, and disappointments are fully realized as the actor turns in his most natural performance. Farrell is able to ditch the perceived image of a Hollywood leading man, and wholly disappear in Malick's vision.

4. Brad Pitt, "The Tree of Life" (2011)
Continuing on with the theme of Malick transforming "leading men" into something completely subtle and different, comes Brad Pitt's portrayal of Mr. O'Brien. A "Job" like figure serving as the embodiment of "nature." Pitt's stern father is at once cold, but ever-loving, as his "fierce will" way of upbringing is frowned upon by his wife, and loathed by his children. We come to understand the plight of this broken man, as Pitt delivers a performance completely out of left field. Proof that good actors only get better with age.

3. Nick Nolte, "The Thin Red Line" (1998)

There's nothing subtle about Nolte's portrayal of Lt. Col. Gordon Tall, a grizzled career military man who finally gets "his own war" in The Thin Red Line. Easily the most boisterous of performances in Malick's filmography, Nolte's rift with the aforementioned Staros, played by Elias Koteas, is one of the many highlights in the film. Nolte's performance may comes across as scenery chewing to some, but we're still able to identify with this man whose been passed over, and now seeks his moment in the sun.

2. Jim Caviezel, "The Thin Red Line" (1998) 
Of the plethora of characters featured in this film, I find myself relating most to Pvt. Witt, who as the film opens, is AWOL from his unit and living with Melanesian natives in the South Pacific. Witt meets his match in Welsh, played by Sean Penn, as each share contrasting views on the meaning and nature of life. It's another quiet Malick performance, but Witt's awareness of "another world" rid of violence makes Caviezel's tranquil turn in this film tragic and hopeful.

1. Q'orianka Kilcher, "The New World" (2005)
This really wasn't a hard decision to make, as Kilcher's portrayal in the crucial role of Pocahontas is second to none throughout Malick's five features. Another unknown at the time the film came out, Kilcher devastates us with her quiet, wide-eyed and complex take on such a large figure. Kilcher's offering is the quintessential Malick performance, gently running the gauntlet of human emotion, without much dialogue. I've yet to see the extended cut of the film, but I hear her character and the film is giving more room to breathe.

The Tree of Life

"The Tree of Life"
Starring: Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Sean Penn, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan
Directed by: Terrence Malick
138 minutes
2011/USA

After two viewings, I can now confidently analyze what I've seen from Terrence Malick's fifth, and most abstract film to date. Those familiar with the director and his reputation for being both reclusive and secretive know that each film of his is not so much a movie, as it is an event. After three years of editing the film, and after it received the top prize at the Cannes film festival, The Tree of Life has served as a lighting rod among critics, bloggers, and movie-goers. It's only June, and I believe this will be the most divisive film of not only this year, but possibly next year as well.

The film is both grandiose and intimate, as it juxtaposes the evolution of Earth and our species with a conservative family living in 1950s Texas. Malick himself grew up in Texas, and it's evident that what we'll come to see throughout the film is more than likely a rumination on his own childhood. Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain play Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien, the film starts with them being informed of the death of one of their three sons. Chastain brings a painful presence to these early scenes as she woefully grieves and pleads to the heavens for answers. We cut to the present where one of the boys, now middle-aged and played by Sean Penn recalls memories of the brother that he lost. Penn's character Jack is now a successful architect living in Houston, a city framed in steel and glass, totally void of any warmth and compassion. In a whisper, Jack proclaims that "the world has gone to the dogs," it's everyone man for himself. Penn's early appearance teases us into thinking he'll be an integral part of the film, but most of his character's screen-time, and the film, is devoted to when Jack was a young boy living under the harsh roof of his father.

One of the film's central themes tells us that there are two paths in life in which we may follow. The way of nature, and the way of grace. Nature is exuded by the patriarch Mr. O'Brien and his "survival of the fittest" mentality. His character portrayed by Pitt was an ex-Naval officer, turned failed musician who had plans to succeed in life, but never made it out ahead. His near-dictatorship style of parenting is looked down upon by his loving and almost angelic wife. Her views are molded in the notion that man should love all things equally. The three sons, Jack, R.L., and Steve all find themselves conflicted as to which is the correct path to follow.

Even though the film contains the slightest semblance of traditional narrative, it's rooted in such eye-opening and jaw-dropping beauty. Major props go out to lenser Emmanuel Lubezki and production designer Jack Fisk for their once again stunning efforts. Malick's original way of telling a story may not be the most compelling to those who aren't familiar with his work, but one cannot deny the stunning sensibility and imagination put forth by Malick and his crew. It's easily the best looking film of the year, one that captures the essence of visual confidence and intuition. Audiences may find themselves being tested early on, as an 18 minute Kubrick-esque depiction of the origins of space, time, and life on planet-Earth invade the picture.

The film portrays childhood and growing up in a painfully realistic nature. The boys live on a street where front doors are kept unlocked and days have endless possibilities. No one has portrayed the mysterious plight and perspective of children this well since David Gordon Green did in George Washington. We mostly follow Jack's point of view, and his resentment towards his strict father, whose own morals and actions are deemed forgivable by the person that Jack's dad turns out to be by the end of the film. Also, it's Pitt's layered and conflicted performance that works here as well, playing a man that has offered everything of himself, and has received nothing in return. I didn't experience the same childhood as the boys in the film, but there is so much here to identify with as Malick interjects even the shortest scenes in which the boys experience or are exposed to something that is foreign to them.

The Tree of Life is much more dense and cryptic than I'm making it out to be, the beauty of the film resides in what the viewer makes of it. Malick is subjecting us to his own views on creation, family, life, and death with such a strong conviction that one could make the mistake in thinking that this film was delivered straight from the heavens and into the cinema, truly a religious experience. Tonally, it's different than any other Malick work because it's shrouded in a sort of non-decipherable code. We're supposed to make our own connections with the material, and answer life's grandest mysteries on our own. In comparison with the rest of Malick's filmography, Tree of Life contains the director's most mysterious imagery. Take for instance a shot of Chastain literally floating in midair outside of the house, or a scene in an attic of a giant thin man watching over a toddler on a bicycle.

It's ultimately an ode to memory and a celebration of life. Are man and woman significant entities in the grand scheme of things, is there a certain path in life that will bring us peace? Only by the end of the film does Malick release the vice-grip of sadness and loss that was so palpable during the 1950s segment. The coda and much discussed finale of the film takes place on a beach where Penn's character is surrounded by numerous enlightened wanderers, including his own family and his younger self. I think Malick is saying that life is a collective experience and that all journeys and destinations are communal, much like the cinema, a place where strangers gather in the dark to experience greatness, something that this film aspires to be, and something that it easily surpasses.

Grade: 5/5