re: Why doesn't the Thin Red Line get more respect?

Malik makes fundamentally different kinds of movies that most audiences simply aren't prepared for.

Audiences, by and large, want to be engaged. I don't mean that in a critical or derisive way; I mean, they like movies where the writer/director/actor is expressing themselves, where they are having a conversation with the audience. We are accustomed to films projecting their ideas out to us.

Malik's films simply don't do that. I always describe them as him having a conversation with himself. You enjoy them when your attention and internal thoughts are aligned with his. If you aren't asking yourself the same questions he is at the same moment of the movie that he is, then you will get pissed off or bored to tears.

I was blown away by The Thin Red Line, then doubly so by The Tree of Life.