In thirty years time Terrence Malick has directed only three feature films. But while Malick is never going to win any awards for productivity, those three films are so epic, so visually sumptuous, and so powerfully resonant that he remains one of American cinema's most legendary—even mythical—figures. Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The Thin Red Line share several of Malick's trademark characteristics: sensual landscape cinematography; cool and dreamlike atmospheres; poetic, quasi-philosophical narration; and characters so mythic they almost become allegorical. When he returned to filmmaking in 1998 after a 20-year absence, actors were lining up to work with him. It's because he's more than just an American director: he's an American poet.