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Terrence Malick is one of Hollywood's most enigmatic and legendary film-makers. Despite his limited output, and a famous twenty-year absence from cinema, Badlands, Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line have challenged genre expectation and redefined notions of contemporary film language. This collection explores his work from a series of vantage points, encompassing issues of identity, the poetics of cinema, representation of the road, youth culture and the American West, depiction of landscape and nature, use of sound and music, and the influence of philosopher Martin Heidegger. Particular emphasis is placed on The Thin Red Line, Malick's haunting evocation of human suffering during World War II, an important classic of modern cinema. Tracing his unique and under-explored film-making style from the 'golden age'of Hollywood to the present, each essay provides innovative ways of reading his films, thus highlighting the significance this truly original director.

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The Wallflower Critical Guide to Contemporary North American Directors encompasses the careers of over 500 directors working in the United States and Canada today. In comprehensively covering a wide range of film-makers -- from established luminaries such as Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Kathryn Bigelow, through independent mavericks like Quentin Tarantino, Hal Hartley, Jim Jarmusch and the Coen brothers, to innovative emerging talents including Spike Jonze, Lisa Krueger, Todd Solondz, Kimberly Peirce, and David O. Russell -- the evolving landscape of contemporary film-making is brought into sharp focus. For each director, the volume provides brief biographical material, a complete filmography, and critical analysis of individual works. (view table of contents)