RE-RELEASE
EXCLUSIVELY AT IFI

Following the success of his recent The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick’s 1978 masterpiece is re-released in a digitally restored version supervised by the director.

Texas, 1916. Two drifters, Abby (Brooke Adams) and Bill (Richard Gere), find work on the land of a rich farmer (Sam Shepard) who has only a year to live. When the farmer falls in love with Abby, Bill sees a way to profit from the potential inheritance, but the ensuing emotional turmoil leads not only to killing but unholy convulsions in Nature. This elemental tale is seen through the eyes of a young narrator, Bill’s sister Linda (Linda Manz), whose perspective adds a layer of irony
and ambiguity in the gap we perceive between her perceptions and our own but also casts a pall of innocence over far from innocent events. Augmented by Nestor Almendros’ photography and Ennio Morricone’s score, this is perhaps Malick’s most beautiful assemblage of core elements in his work: awesome Nature, a lost Eden and emergent America. (Notes by Neil Sinyard).