End the movie as they drive away.

Then get someone to cut the Penn storyline altogether . . . go easy on the cosmos riff . . . and did the "advanced flashbacks" dealing with the brother's death really add anything / seem unfulfilled?

But Malick has surrounded himself with a lot of enablers / apologists over the years. Bill Pohlad being the principal one here.

I think this could be a brilliant tight 90-minute movie, instead of the half-realized, alternatingly glorious / muddled film it is.

The recent "threat" of a six-hour cut suggests to me that the Penn storyline and possibly the post-death pockets of the story were explored further at one point but ultimately got left on the cutting room floor. But Malick being Malick and Pohlad stroking him every step of the production couldn't go the whole way.

Ain't no such thing as halfway crooks, Terrence.

Also, based on the grumbles I heard walking out of the theater--tacky as hell BTW--I'm willing to bet that at least half of the audience I saw this with had never seen a Terrence Malick flick before or knew him from a hole in the ground. I was somewhat discontented walking out, but at least I knew what I was walking into.

>a project that got away from him