Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS ix
3. Preface. The Important Things in Life xi
4. Introduction. From Philosophy to Film 1
5. Chapter 1. Crime Wave: The Pursuit of Personhood in Badlands 27
6. Chapter 2. Wonders of the Prairie: The Metaphysics of Days of Heaven 74
7. Chapter 3. Heroism, Individualism, and the Over-Soul: The Transcendentalist Theodicy of The Thin Red Line 110
8. Chapter 4. Ways of Worldmaking: Beginnings and Endings in The New World 147
9. Chapter 5. Cosmic Confessions, Part I: The Tree of Life and the Problem of Suffering 184
10. Chapter 6. Cosmic Confessions, Part II: The Search for Meaning in To the Wonder, Knight of Cups, and Voyage of Time 223
11. Chapter 7. Lost and Found: The Gift of Mercy in Song to Song and A Hidden Life 266
12. Conclusion. From Film to Philosophy 315
13. Notes 329
14. Index 389
15. Acknowledgments 399