Prayer and the Cinema of Terrence Malick
How the auteur’s films can help us expand what prayer can look like.
“The Tree of Life,” Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures
“Help each other. Love everyone. Every leaf. Every ray of light. Forgive.” This is just one of many lines that can be heard in auteur Terrence Malick’s films. Their lyrical and existential prose coupled with breathtaking imagery makes one feel as if they’re watching a visual interpretation of a poem or prayer. In many ways, his films can be seen as that and can perhaps be used to help people of faith understand other dynamics and forms of what prayer does and could look like.
As a person of faith and an artist who leans toward more natural aesthetics, his films resonate with me very deeply. Growing up in church I regularly expressed my faith in creative outlets– singing, drawing and the like. But as I grew older and began to have a deep appreciation for cinema I found myself yearning to watch a film that could combine beautiful imagery with theological and spiritual undertones, and could somewhat explore questions that I found myself asking God about. Then, in 2011 I saw Malick’s The Tree of Life. Starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain and Sean Penn, it is a story told abstractly and set in the 1950s about a father’s tense relationship to his eldest son Jack, a very beautiful and almost angelic mother, and an older version of Jack struggling with very deep, existential questions. I had never seen such a philosophical, symbolic and unconventional work that was so incredibly hard to follow. I left the movie very confused, overwhelmed and honestly, a little disappointed. But it stuck with me.
“The Tree of Life,” Photo: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Coupled with some of the most beautifully framed cinematography I had ever seen, it felt like I was watching someone in the presence of God asking the Almighty their reason for being and purpose on Earth. It was then that I realized that his films, amongst many other films, are not always meant to be understood but felt. I believe the same can be said for prayer, to a degree. Even if we do not immediately receive the answers we seek upon opening our eyes and unclasping our hands, prayer is about stepping outside of ourselves, and entering into and connecting with the Divine. And just as one receives further clarification after a few viewings of Malick’s films, so it is with prayer.
The Psalms of David and its other writers are filled with almost every human emotion — sadness, exuberance, rage and jealously. In fact this is what prayer is — being honest with oneself whilst in acknowledgement and reverence of the Almighty. And for many, prayer can be a very intense experience––passionately yelling into the atmosphere with tears streaming down one’s face. For others, it can be very solemn and quiet. Regardless, it is an expression that requires giving all of oneself and holding nothing back, if they want to fully experience a transformation. Malick’s films are filled with these same themes and emotions and acknowledges their need, as they are expressions of what it means to be a child of the Creator.
In a commentary written a few years ago, Jason Butler of Cinema Faith did a wonderful analysis on the connection between some of Malick’s films and the Holy Trinity of the bible — God and creation in The Tree of Life, love in Christ in To The Wonder starring Ben Affleck, and even the Holy Spirit in Knight of Cups, starring Christian Bale. They are representations of each part of the Trinity and how humanity, in its brokenness, can connect to each one.
In time, I grew to fall in love with The Tree of Life. But more importantly, it made me realize the many forms prayer can take and inspired me to create like films. I collaborated with a good friend of mine who lost her father, and we created a piece that was both a letter to her father and somewhat, a prayer.
With only 10 films to his name spanning across a near 50-year career, Terrence Malick’s films undeniably have a lasting effect on the mind and soul, despite them being both acclaimed and polarizing. With topics exploring existentialism, love, and the even afterlife, I believe his work can draw the viewer into a place of awe and wonder, and can somehow remind someone with even the hardest of hearts that their experiences and emotions are never unseen by or lost to the One above.