Terrence Malick's films, ranked
The top 3 according to 641 votes from people: The Thin Red Line (1998) · Days of Heaven (1978) · The New World (2005). (Updated Aug 23, 2023.)
From Badlands to A Hidden Life, plus his IMAX documentary: Malick's films ordered from TheWrap and High On Films, with The Thin Red Line and The Tree of Life fighting for the top.
Top 10
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1
The Thin Red Line (1998)
Guadalcanal as a meditation; Golden Bear and seven Oscar nominations.
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2
Days of Heaven (1978)
Néstor Almendros's Oscar-winning magic-hour photography; best director at Cannes.
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3
The New World (2005)
Pocahontas and John Smith, with Colin Farrell and Q'orianka Kilcher.
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4
Badlands (1973)
Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek on a killing spree; his debut.
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5
The Tree of Life (2011)
A Texas family and the birth of the universe; Palme d'Or.
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6
Song to Song (2017)
Musicians and a producer in the Austin scene.
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7
Voyage of Time (2016)
His documentary on the history of the cosmos.
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8
To the Wonder (2012)
Ben Affleck and Olga Kurylenko between Paris and Oklahoma.
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9
A Hidden Life (2019)
Franz Jägerstätter refuses to swear loyalty to Hitler.
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10
Knight of Cups (2015)
Christian Bale adrift in Los Angeles.
How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.
Is something missing?
Comments (4)
The Thin Red Line over Days of Heaven is bold but I get it.
A Hidden Life deserves to be higher imo, it's his best late film by a mile.
Badlands is still the one I rewatch most. Short, strange and perfect.
Knight of Cups last feels fair. Beautiful to look at, but I had no idea what was going on.