Through his lyrical style, realized especially through the deliberate use of music, Malick is purposefully creating a cinema that, through the relationship between message, vehicle and an aesthetic that functions lyrically and rhythmically, instills the Christian story—specifically the way of grace—deep into our beings. It is a style that gets stuck in our bodies and imaginations and works its way to our hearts, making us the kind of people that we are.
For Malick, it’s not enough to merely create movies that reflect or convey his Christian—more specifically Catholic—way of seeing the world. In one of the two public interviews he has given, specifically a 1979 conversation with the French daily newspaper called Le Monde, Malick said of his two films at that time, “Badlands” and “Days of Heaven": “For an hour, or for two days, or longer, these films can enable small changes of heart, changes that mean the same thing: to live better and to love more.” Put simply, Malick doesn’t just want us to observe and ponder his Christian ideas; he wants us to believe and walk in them.
Understanding the formative power of art and stories, Malick seeks to change our way of seeing and feeling, waking us up to the way of grace, an orientation to the world marked by humility, charity and love. Through his entire body of work, specifically a personal style that moves poetically—or musically—in the utilization of montage, lyrical camerawork, rhythmic editing, character voiceover and rapturous music, Malick wants to turn our hearts and minds toward a greater reality.
Whereas other filmmakers make movies to provide an avenue of escapism or, perhaps, to “create art for art’s sake,” Malick boasts an entirely different motivation. His intention is to not only produce good, beautiful, and truthful works of art but to also transform hearts and minds. He seeks to shift our orientation to the world, opening our eyes to the reality of the gospel; Malick is attempting to lead us away from the way of nature and toward the way of grace.
As film scholar Danny Fisher notes, “Malick is making films with the hope that our hearts will be touched by nature and especially grace. He is unapologetically earnest in this endeavor ... and clearly wants very much for humanity to follow Mrs. O’Brien’s instructions: Help each other. Love everyone. Forgive.” Malick wants us to, like the antidote goes in “Knight of Cups,” wake us up from our slumber, remember who we are—a prince and son of a king—and find the pearl.
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