Ah yes. Malick works with phenomenological intuition. His intent is to create a story from the different phenomena the visuals create. This allows for a new concept of narrative which is inherently cinematic. There is a story, but there is a higher story, that floats a layer above it all. It is the important one. The one he wishes to tell the most.
 

Couple notes on different aspects of Malick's work. I've been rewatching The Thin Red Line and one feature of his cinematography is the physical human angle. Many of the camera angles are from the men's perspectives--bullets coming towards you, looking up through the grass when they're crawling and so on. The other thing I'm catching are the similarities with the Iliad-- the dogs eating the corpses, crossing the dark waters to the beach, and more.