Terrence Malick was one of the most meticulous and original American filmmakers to emerge in the 1970s. Unlike other equally gifted directors who came of age contemporaneously (e.g., Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, Steven Spielberg), he seemingly disappeared from features for close to two decades. Yet, Malick's legacy assured he would be ranked as more than a cult figure.

An intensely private individual, Malick rarely granted interviews and issued conflicting information about his upbringing and vital statistics. (Sources vary widely over the place and year of his birth.) This son of an