Acknowledgments Introduction Framing Nature and History in Malick Scholarship Ecocritical Film Studies and the Problem of Space The Figural Approach to Analysis in Film Studies Benjamin's Concept of Time in Film Studies Terrence Malick's Work: Time-Based Ecocinema 1. From Myth, Tragedy and Narrative to Allegory, Trauerspiel and Film in Badlands and Days of Heaven Symbolic and Allegorical Nature in Badlands Tragedy and Trauerspiel in Days of Heaven Prehistory and Second Technologies in Badlands and Days of Heaven The Blue Flower in the Land of Technology: Splinters of Messianic Time in Badlands and Days of Heaven Conclusion: from Mythic to Figural Temporal Relations in Films 2. Time and History in The Thin Red Line and The New World The Thin Red Line Between Historical and Mechanical Nature Critiquing Violence in Nature and History Timidity and Courage in The Thin Red Line and The New World Camera Work as Pure Mediality Conclusion: Time-Based Phenomenology 3. Looking at Evolutionary Narratives in The Tree of Life and Voyage of Time Replaying Life's Tape? Competing Mythological Narratives in Malick's The Tree of Life and Voyage of Time Reconfiguring Modern Aesthetics in Evolutionary Narratives Figural Space beyond Idealism and Nihilism Materialist Theology in The Tree of Life and Voyage of Time: Life's Journey Conclusion: Counterfactual Histories in Evolutionary Narratives 4. The Wastelands of Progress in To the Wonder, Knight of Cups and Song to Song The End of Teleological Time in To the Wonder The Pilgrim's Progress in Knight of Cups Twenty-First Century's Histories and Technologies in Song to Song Contemporary Ecocinema in Song to Song Conclusion: Finite Freedom and Materialist Theology in Ecocinema Conclusion Bibliography Index