2011’s Tree of Life,
written and directed by Terrence Malick.
Starring Brad Pitt, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Sean
Penn, Laramie Eppler, Tye Sheridan, Fiona Shaw, and Joanna Going.
What is it about?
Set in 1950’s Waco, Texas, the 3 O’Brien boys of Jack (Hunter
McCracken), R.L (Laramie Eppler), and Steve (Tye
Sheridan) grow up in a household parented by their mother (Jessica
Chastain), and father (Brad Pitt). As an adult, Jack (now played by Sean Penn)
reminisces about his time growing up, of choosing a path between nature and
grace, and reconciling his spirit’s quest for resolution. Will he be able to
find peace in a universe as broad as it is deep?
Why is it worth seeing?
In the last century, Writer/Director Terrence Malick had a
period of reclusion, going 2 decades between projects, before slowly beginning
to increase the frequency of his output in the current millennium. The
notoriously reclusive director would never confirm it, but one could surmise
that his time away from Hollywood may have let him percolate future greatness. In
a way, Tree of Life feels like the
culmination of his career, in its dual sided tale of ambiguous (but always
representational) religious allegory, and of a nuclear family living together
in the 1950’s. As always, his use of voiceover combines with images of sublime
natural wonder, as well as abstract shots of what could be the universe’s formation.
The only thing more grand than its visual splendour, and its love of the poetic
and the mystical, is its ambition.
That ambition, and culmination mentioned above, are no joke. Tree of Life’s comparisons to 2001: A Space Odyssey are appropriate, not necessarily for the cosmic images combined with classical music- so much as for the sheer reach of its creator. Malick’s love of the spiritual, an urging passionate voice influenced by its bifurcated influence of Christianity, is on full display. Its sequences, such as the luminous merging of atoms forming what could be the big bang’s formation, and dinosaurs roaming the earth, confirm that the film is all in in showing a type of timeless religious reverence to the earth that is mythology-making in all of its crystal clear formation. It’s Malick’s love of the internal voice (via character narration), of the universal ambiguousness of human experience, that works so well here (some would say before lapsing into self parody in future projects).
That ambition, and culmination mentioned above, are no joke. Tree of Life’s comparisons to 2001: A Space Odyssey are appropriate, not necessarily for the cosmic images combined with classical music- so much as for the sheer reach of its creator. Malick’s love of the spiritual, an urging passionate voice influenced by its bifurcated influence of Christianity, is on full display. Its sequences, such as the luminous merging of atoms forming what could be the big bang’s formation, and dinosaurs roaming the earth, confirm that the film is all in in showing a type of timeless religious reverence to the earth that is mythology-making in all of its crystal clear formation. It’s Malick’s love of the internal voice (via character narration), of the universal ambiguousness of human experience, that works so well here (some would say before lapsing into self parody in future projects).
Life’s actual narrative structure,
that of a young boy’s tale of adolescence, carries over several years,
fracturing time in a way that makes it feel less concrete, demonstrated in
glimpses that feel like reverent nostalgia- plumes of smoke being sprayed in a
neighbourhood from a moving vehicle. Its central character’s journey, torn between
the aspirations of an overly gentle mother and an overbearing father, speak to
the wrestling in one’s own coming of age. Because of Malick’s love of
abstraction, it doesn’t hit the same kind of specificity of a coming of age
tale like Boyhood, but its artistic
impulses and occasionally violent adolescent urges speak to a different
struggle, that biblical (and more archetypal) characters could relate to.
As Into the Wonder demonstrates, a Malick production can be lighter on its characters and narrative heft, and a tad heavy on the abstraction (what are Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain’s first names?)- but Tree of Life’s place in history is to adroitly merge two things, that is, the macro and the micro, soughing forwards together through history.
As Into the Wonder demonstrates, a Malick production can be lighter on its characters and narrative heft, and a tad heavy on the abstraction (what are Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain’s first names?)- but Tree of Life’s place in history is to adroitly merge two things, that is, the macro and the micro, soughing forwards together through history.
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