Amid senseless violence, we can sometimes find simple truths where we least expect them, hovering at the margins of the chaos.

No, this is not the latest wave of pro-surge Pentagon propaganda. It's Terrence Malick's cinematic world, a landscape where tragedy and subtle poignancies are woven into a meditative vision that first manifested in Badlands, the director's 1973 directorial debut. The film, starring a wiry young Martin Sheen and an even younger Sissy Spacek as his jailbait girlfriend,...