93 minute running time so the right length but it still feels like an epic … a W.D. By movie … he threw out the script and thankfully cut cut cut as much as he could … an unusual one, created a mood, a sense of time and place (turn of the 20th century), however romanticized … sparse dialogue, mainly voice-over from a child’s perspective*, it’s all about creating a feeling, a mythical or fairy tale world … with a Biblical plague of locusts and hellfire no less! … but it does give you a sense of a country unformed and people untamed … pretty boy Richard Gere and young Sam Shepard (too young to be a wealthy farmer? I guess he inherited it) … and Linda Manz can dance (that was my favorite scene) … with an Ennio Morricone score and lush cinematography … I can see why this movie is widely loved … it’s a green-go.

(*”It was a last-minute decision by Mr. Malick to have Ms. Manz do the voice-over narration, without a script.”)