Book Review: “Terrence Malick and The Examined Life” Is A Film Buff’s Ultimate Study Guide | Wealth of Geeks

Terrence Malick remains the most unknowable filmmaker of his generation. Entering Hollywood in the early 1970s, Malick used his formal knowledge of philosophy, his prevailing interest in art and film, and his own intellectual curiosity about the natural world to craft some of the most vivid and forward-thinking movies imaginable. Now, Terrence Malick and The Examined Life hopes to crack the enigma of Terrence Malick.

Though not as well-known as his contemporaries (Martin Scorsese or Steven Spielberg, for example), Malick carved out his definitive place in the industry, specializing in existential films that questioned morality, environmental beauty, and the unfathomable mysteries of the universe.

While an Oscar-nominated director whose films have inspired everyone from Quentin Tarantino to Guillermo del Toro, mysteries continue to abound around this celebrated modern auteur. Like Stanley Kubrick, Malick has cultivated a near-mythic reputation for his unconventional style of filmmaking, as well as for his extensive reclusiveness. With the limited amount of interviews he’s granted over the years, many will have trouble deciphering Malick’s motivations behind any one of his notable movies, whether centered around the European settlement of Virginia (The New World) or the chaotic battlefields of World War II (The Thin Red Line).

Despite the enigma surrounding his personal and professional life, certain film scholars–like Martin Woessner–have excelled at analyzing Malick’s past career, as seen through Woessner’s recent nonfiction book, Terrence Malick and The Examined Life. A comprehensive study of Malick’s layered career, Woessner’s book provides a fascinating look at Malick’s life, creative influences, and the deeper meaning of each of his films. 

A Biographical Study

Examining Malick’s career from his formal Harvard days up to his most recent work, Terrence Malick and the Examined Life evaluates Malick’s life through a meticulous biographical lens. Rather than summarizing Malick’s upbringing and his educational studies alone, though, Woessner goes above and beyond in his study of Malick, highlighting specific books, philosophers, and films that may have influenced Malick’s artistic growth.

Of course, given Malick’s elusiveness over the years, many will find it impossible to say how much of Woesnner’s assertions ring true, with little proof to support them beyond mere academic conjecture. Yet even then, Woessner backs up his in-depth readings of Malick’s films with compelling evidence, from first-hand testimony from Malick’s cast and crew to lesson plans from Malick’s tenure at Harvard. As a result, Woessner equips himself with a more authoritative stance on Malick’s hard-to-penetrate filmography, pinpointing the autobiographical aspects of his movies, as well as the potential books and movies that may have shaped Malick’s distinct creative vision.

A New Kind of Filmmaker

While meticulous in depicting Malick’s background, Woessner also deserves praise for his representation of Malick’s artistic struggles, including his constant battles against studio executives and his supposed frustrations with formal philosophical studies. Taking advantage of his already avid interest in film and combining it with his detailed background in philosophy, Malick became a brand-new kind of artist: an experimental filmmaker who melded his intellectual interests into his various artistic endeavors.

As a result, Woessner makes a fascinating claim that Malick became the first filmmaker of his kind–a philosopher-director-writer hybrid in the same mold as poet-philosophers like Whitman or Emerson. Breaking free of the stifling format of learned philosophy, Malick pursued his own prevailing philosophical inquiries, including humanity’s relationship to the cosmos, God, and fellow human beings.

Though setting himself a formidable task with such spirited claims, Woessner nevertheless backs up and supports every one of his ideas, citing specific lessons Malick might have learned from pre-existing philosophy, literature, art, or film. For this reason, fans of Malick’s films will find Terrence Malick and the Examined Life a compelling read. If nothing else, it also helps illustrate how Malick blended his personal background with his philosophical and artistic ideas. (Take, for example, The Tree of Life, in which Malick drew on his early childhood in the Texas suburbs, combining it with his own deep-seated interest in the Bible, God, and the nature of time.)

Enriching Malick’s Filmography

With how much Woessner probes into Malick’s filmography, one shouldn’t find it surprising to see how much The Examined Life might enrich Malick’s movies, especially for more experimental movies like The Tree of Life, Knight of Cups, or To the Wonder. Like any exceptional film scholar, Woessner provides a knowledgeable interpretation of each Malick film, harping on the numerous themes Malick espouses in his movies, like the environmentalist undertones of Days of Heaven or The Thin Red Line or the religious thematic subjects in The Tree of Life.

For all his complimentary praise, Woessner also proves himself able to tackle Malick’s more questionable films as well, admitting to the lesser quality of Malick’s later movies (To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, and Song to Song). Rather than dismissing them outright, though, Woessner offers his own theories on what Malick might have meant to convey through these movies, as well as how they might even appear as loose-knit companion pieces to The Tree of Life. Again, one might describe Woessner’s claims as assertion or individual interpretation–yet he always manages to support each and every one of his claims with plenty of convincing evidence.

While it might help to have seen Malick’s movies before reading The Examined Life–or at least to have some partial familiarity with Malick’s films–Woessner makes his main subjects approachable for every prospective reader. Breaking down Malick’s filmography one movie at a time, it may even leave readers with a renewed appreciation for Malick and his movies, as well as the inherent possibilities that come with experimental filmmaking.

Rating: 10/10 Specs

Terrence Malick and the Examined Life is available in stores and online retail sites beginning March 25.