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An Ecocritical Analysis of Selected Films by Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog and Sean Penn

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An Ecocritical Analysis of Selected Films by Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog and Sean Penn Different Natures: An Ecocritical Analysis of Selected Films by Terrence Malick, Werner Herzog and Sean Penn Karl van Wyk Supervisor: Prof. Gerald Gaylard A dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts. Johannesburg, 2012 Abstract Humanity’s relationship with nature has, in recent years, undoubtedly been one of con- tention and turmoil, an issue whose drama is gaining popularity in popular culture and, especially, film. In this dissertation I examine how these challenging human-nature rela- tionships play out in Terrence Malick’s The New World , Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World , Sean Penn’s Into the Wild , and the Jon Kra- kauer book, of the same title, upon which Penn’s film is based. As one’s views on nature (like all else) are mediated through language, using ecocritical principles slanted towards filmic, as opposed to written, texts, I provide a close examination of the ways in which these artists portray the relationship between language and nature, and the impact this has on our cultural and individual identities. I will also show how these primary texts make use of centuries-old Romantic aesthetics in order to humanise nature for moral ends. The primary texts agree that a large part of the problem in the poor relation- ship between humanity and nature is due to inadequate metaphors with which humanity views the earth. Thus, each artist promotes a certain kind of anthropomorphic under- standing of nature which he believes is pivotal in encouraging better interconnections between humanity and nature. As a result, I provide a critique of the kinds of metaphors used by each respective artist, where some metaphors of nature may support or contra- dict a certain artist’s aims in his portrayal of human-nature relationships. I Keywords Terrence Malick; Werner Herzog; Sean Penn; Jon Krakauer; nature; film; documentary; ecocriticism; celluloid ecocriticism; ecofeminism; deep ecology; anthropocentrism; an- thropomorphism; Romanticism; Gaia II Declaration I declare this dissertation my own unaided work. It is submitted for the degree of Master of Arts in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any other degree or examination in any other university. Karl van Wyk 8th of February, 2012 III Acknowledgements Firstly, my deepest thanks go to my parents, Kathy and Chris van Wyk, for providing me with the means of completing this task, both logistically and emotionally. The writ- ing of this dissertation would have been significantly harder had it not been for their unconditional care, advice and support. Thank you to my partner, Trevor Bell, whose love and constant intellectual stimula- tion have greatly fuelled my own academic pursuits. I would also like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Gerald Gaylard, whose guidance has moulded this dissertation into a shape far better than I could have accomplished on my own. Finally, my sincere gratitude goes toward the Harold and Doris Tothill Bequest Fund and the Mellon Postgraduate Mentoring Programme. Their support has had reper- cussions that have gone far beyond the financial. IV TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT I KEYWORDS II DECLARATION III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS IV TABLE OF CONTENTS V DEDICATION VIII INTRODUCTION 1 WHAT IS NATURE ? 1 CHAPTER 1 ECOCRITICISM: AN INTRODUCTION 8 DEFINING ECOCRITICISM 8 ECOCRITICISM AND FILM 18 ECOFEMINISM 26 DEEP ECOLOGY 31 CHAPTER 2 NATURE AND LANGUAGE 37 STRUCTURALISM 37 READING NATURE IN LANGUAGE IN THE NEW WORLD 44 DISTORTING NATURE IN HERZOG ’S ENCOUNTERS AND GRIZZLY MAN 50 “T O CALL EACH THING BY ITS RIGHT NAME ”: INTO THE WILD 58 CHAPTER 3 NATURE ON CULTURE AND CHARACTER 62 THE BRITISH AND NATIVE AMERICAN PERSPECTIVE 62 NATURE AND MORALITY 69 EXPLORING NATURE 73 NATURE AND INDIVIDUAL IDENTITY 76 CHAPTER 4 ROMANTICISM 84 AN INTRODUCTION 84 V THE SUBLIME IN HERZOG ’S ENCOUNTERS AND GRIZZLY MAN 96 REDEFINING THE SUBLIME : THE NEW WORLD 103 LIVING BY THE SUBLIME : INTO THE WILD 108 A BRIEF CONCLUSION ON ROMANTICISM 111 CHAPTER 5 ANTHROPOMORPHISM: A DISCUSSION 114 THE IMPORTANCE OF SCIENCE 114 THE IMPORTANCE OF ART : THE LIVING EARTH 120 KRAKAUER , PENN AND HERZOG ON NATURE 124 NATURE ’S VENGEANCE 128 CONCLUSION 136 TENDING TOWARDS AN UNDERSTANDING OF NATURE 136 WORKS CITED 143 VI TABLE OF FIGURES FIGURE 1: HERZOG THE ENIGMA OF KASPAR HAUSER 42 FIGURE 2: MALICK THE NEW WORLD 49 FIGURE 3: HERZOG GRIZZLY MAN 53 FIGURE 4: MALICK THE NEW WORLD 65 FIGURE 5: MALICK THE NEW WORLD 65 FIGURE 6: HERZOG ENCOUNTERS AT THE END OF THE WORLD 96 FIGURE 7: THREE COMBINED STILLS FROM MALICK ’S THE NEW WORLD 104 FIGURE 8: FRIEDRICH “W ANDERER ABOVE THE SEA OF FOG ” 106 FIGURE 9: MALICK THE NEW WORLD 106 FIGURE 10: PENN 110 VII Dedication To my parents for giving me the love of art; to Trevor with whom I share this love. VIII We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts (Hazlitt 249). IX Introduction For what is nature? Nature is no great mother who has borne us. She is our creation. It is in our brain that she quickens to life. Things are because we see them, and what we see, and how we see it, depends on the arts that have influenced us. To look at a thing is very different from seeing a thing. One does not see anything until one sees its beauty. Then, and only then, does it come into existence (Wilde 27). What is Nature? Nature is one of the greatest living poems. It is a poem because it lends itself to multiple and often controversial interpretations. It is living because, as I will argue, to treat it otherwise would be suicidal. The manner in which humanity treats and defines this liv- ing poem is an issue which has garnered increased attention in the last four decades in art, literary scholarship and science. However, humanity’s attempt to define nature has consistently resulted in nature’s tendency to slip away and evade definition, a reality which has led Raymond Williams to claim that nature “is perhaps the most complex word in the [English] language” (219). Indeed, the complexity of the word is showcased by the several problems which arise the instant we attempt to define it: Is it possible to come to an objective definition of nature? Is it necessary to come to an objective defini- tion of nature? Is it possible to live in harmony with nature? What does it mean to live in harmony with nature? Are humans a part of, or apart from, nature? If humans inter- fere with nature, does that mean nature can no longer be considered ‘natural’? These are some of the questions with which artists have grappled, especially, more recently, in film. Thus, it is with film’s recent interest in humanity’s relationship with nature that I will attempt to explore these questions by offering an ecocritical reading of Terrence Malick’s The New World , Werner Herzog’s documentaries Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World , Sean Penn’s Into the Wild , and Jon Krakauer’s book, of the 1 same title, upon which Penn’s film is based. It is expected, but not any less interesting because of it, that these artists present widely differing readings of nature, a perpetually elusive concept. Malick seems to be of the opinion that it is entirely possible to live a life in harmony with nature, while Herzog offers an antithetical view on the matter, demonstrating that it is wrong and dangerous to perceive nature as a safe haven from human culture. It is because of this that Herzog perceives nature as harsh, unmerciful and ugly. While Penn and Krakauer do not view nature to be as brutal as Herzog does, their respective texts certainly carry this warning, and come to the conclusion that one cannot know all of nature all of the time, especially when attempting to do so solitarily. Each artist valorises and promotes a certain perception of nature, with each definition of nature as contentious, puzzling and problematic as the next. There are certainly several repercussions that arise when assigning a particular and idiosyncratic definition to ‘nature’, a consequence which does not escape the artists un- der scrutiny. Thus, when providing their own definition of nature, each artist also illustrates what it means to ‘immerse oneself into nature’, to ‘live closer to nature’, or, to use a phrase which appears throughout my dissertation, ‘to establish better intercon- nections between humanity and nature’. These are phrases which are as difficult to define as nature itself, mainly because they rely on a definition of nature to make sense. One of the findings that presents itself in analysing these texts is that part of the diffi- culty in defining nature and all related terms comes from the fact that the definition of nature is culturally determined. Thus, in the process of providing a definition of nature, each culture does so by negotiating their placement on the nature-human continuum, if, indeed, we are to assume that nature and humans fall on opposite ends of the same scale. That we may conclude that nature is culturally determined comes mainly from the fact that every culture views nature in a different way. Take, for example, the Native American perception of nature when compared to the white American perception of na- ture, a point on which Luther Standing Bear, a Native American, comments: We did not think of the great open plains, the beautiful rolling hills, and winding streams with tangled growth, as ‘wild.’ Only to the white man was nature a ‘wilderness’ and only to him was the land ‘infested’ with ‘wild’ animals and ‘savage’ people.
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