Top Ranked Films of Terrence Malick

Terrence Malick
4 titles, 55th in points with 13,683

These are all the films of U.S. director Terrence Malick’s that made the top 1000 in our 2011 update of the Top Ranked 1000 Films on the Net, all polls.

1. Days of Heaven (1978) #110
2. Badlands (1972) #232
3. The Thin Red Line (1998) #373 [photo top]
4. Tree of Life, The (2011) #650
5. New World, The (2005) #1329 [photo bottom]

An amazing artist, he has chosen to make about one film per decade. I believe these five are all of his films so far. I like them all, but have not seen The Tree of Life yet.

The New World should be ranked in the top 1000 as well, a beautifully filmed story of John Smith and the first settlers in Virginia.

I’d probably move Days of Heaven down some, beautiful to look at but I wasn’t as emotionally involved in it for some reason, perhaps the performance of Richard Gere.

Badlands is a very good crime film, a fictional telling of the Starkwether murder spree, starring a young Martin Sheen and an even younger Sissy Spacek.

The Thin Red Line is also an underrated war film, perhaps a little to existential for many, but still a good combination of both philosophy and action.

Colin Farrell and Q'orianca Kilcher in The New World

See the full list of top ranked 100 directors here: Top Ranked 100 Directors, 2011 Edition