In Theatres
There are about 45 minutes of brilliance in Terrence Malik’s opus and Palm d’Or winning film, “The Tree Of Life.” The problem is that the film goes on for a total of about 138 minutes. Is this is a pan of the film? Not at all; most films would never even aspire to be as good as the best moments in Tree Of Life, which is what makes the more self-indulgent passages all the more frustrating. Malick, the famously reclusive filmmaker has no one looking over his shoulder, which is a dangerous thing; He’s free to roll hours and hours of hand-held camera shots in order to capture tiny magical moments. He’s free to edit together ALL of those dazzling visuals into a sort of montage that is all looks and no substance. He’s free to make a movie which only he knows what the hell it’s all about.
And everyone will stand back and admire the Emperor’s Clothes. Not me. I want to know, quite simply, WTF this film was about. Does that make me a simpleton who can’t handle a non-linear, free form film with no coherent narrative? Probably. But even my hero, Roger Ebert, had to resort to writing an essay that was fun to read and absolutely couldn’t fill me in on what I couldn’t figure out myself. My colleage, Brandon Fibbs has also written a brilliant essay about this movie, but even he is unable to tell me (let’s pretend I’m a consumer who wants to know whether I should see the film or not) what is going on.
.
I want answers.
Here’s what I can tell you: The film seems to be partially about Sean Penn, in the present day, remembering his childhood in Texas and his interesting parents and his conflicting feelings about his relationships with them. By the way, this part of the film set in Texas is beautifully acted, shot and written. For the time that the film drops in on this family, it is a perfectly rendered portrait of a specific time and place and very specific people. The cast of actors is uniformly superb. I’m not too much younger than Sean Penn and I grew up in Texas—there are so many minute details that are utterly authentic.
But did I mention the whole sequence in the film that (without dialogue) seems to take us from the “big bang” to the formation of the sun and planets, to the creation of Earth and, are you ready for this, the existence of dinosaurs! Yes, we see two herky-jerky CGI dinosaurs. Terry, babe—come baaaack to us!
I’m certainly not trashing this film. Hell, I’ll probably see it at least two more times. I just want someone, ANYONE to please just answer one question for me:
WTF was that all about?
Jesus Christ. The fact that so many people are “confused” by this movie really bums me out. Some don’t even make an effort to understand this amazing work of art that, yes, was about 30 min too long. What was it about? Firstly, Tree of Life has very little to do with the characters.
It’s about 2 conflicting forces in life, one structured and forceful, based on survival, and the other free and accepting, based on nurture. These forces are obvious in every part of the film, including the cuh-raaaaaaazy space / creation sequence. These forces also manifest themselves in Pitt’s story with one represented by things / ideas that are told to you, and the other being things / ideas that you perceive yourself, specifically as a child when both are so much more potent. Those two forces drive the rest of what the film is about including God, family, American culture, childhood, parenthood, fear, shame, joy, beauty, death, and life.
So, what is the Tree of Life? It’s the point that a tree is a microcosm, a fractal, of the second force, the nurturing one, and the one that Malik believes is the Key of Life now that humans have evolved past eating each other. That’s what the Tree of Life IS, and, as I perceive it, the way of life Sean Penn finally chooses as he walks through the door at the end which he can only do after accepting the loss of his brother.
But perhaps the very best part about this movie is that it’s layered and complex enough for every person who sees it to take something different from it, AND THAT’S WHAT THE BEST ART DOES! If you really don’t take a single thing from this movie other than “That was dumb,” well, go eat some rocks and watch Warrior…it’s exactly what you expect.
“The Tree Of Life” is about a Mother accepting the death of her son, and a man dealing with the death of his Brother….
EXCRUCIATINGLY LONG AND BORING… I WAS BEGING FOR IT TO END. AND DISTURBINGLY WEIRD…
This is how I get it. It shows Sean Penn’s (who is the younger brother, not the dead one!), Father’s and Mother’s suffering, then it puts it into perspective by depicting all those cosmological parts (which are, by the way, superb). For the whole movie Mother cannot understand why God (or whatever she is speaking to, but definitely a God-like being) took her beloved son. The love isn’t easy between the Son and the Father- it shows how different the relations between children and their parents are. Then comes the understanding, and Mother says: I give him to you. She let’s go of the grieving at the end of time.
Pure BullShit ! I only watch 10 ‘ of that shit…
I saw this last night and my girl and I walked out after the movie equally confused with a movie that was almost exhausting to watch. However we had a 25 minute drive home and I think we came up with a viable storyline.
The movie opens with an older Pitt/ Chastain living what I assume is current day. They receive a letter which announces the Sean Penn’s characters death. The parents begin to grieve.
We then go on that 45 minute NatGeo trip through the cosmos, oceans and jurrasic period. This is Sean Penn’s character post death journey into the afterlife where all life’s questions are answered. He then revisits his own life in an almost dream state. It’s all very trippy. Mom’s in a snow white style glass casket in the woods. Their dead brother (the one who drowned) keeps showing up. Mom’s pulling Matrix style elevation moves in the front yard. I think Malik did these things because he didn’t want it to feel like real life but rather the memories of real life from a dead mans perspective. It all culminates in Penn showing up in heaven beach and reuniting with his family.
I found the movie difficult to watch because it was dense nonlinear and very long. However as we started to piece it together it feels kind of rewarding and I’m almost tempted to see it again to see if our theory stands up in a second more critical viewing.
The wikipedia page doesn’t jive with my theory of the movie. In some ways wiki makes more sense, however in other ways my plot works better for the movie. Oh well.
Saw it yesterday afternoon in the only artsy theater in a 2 mill + city (Limited release?)
A bunch of peopl;e were spontanously clapping at the end. I am not sure they understood the concept or just acted like it. The theater was packed, maybe because it was clos to 100 F. outside?
Did the film deserve a price? I don’t know. If so, then for magnificent photography and beautiful music. But, is that sufficient?
It did not flow There were pieces , not connected. And, as with many artistic productions in film or theater, it is left to the viewer to understand it all and form one’s opinion out of a variety of possibilities.
A good number of people left after less than 1 hour. I was at least not bored to consider that.
I DONT KNOW! Just got back from the cinema ,….and im fucking pissed! WTF!
Lets get real! This movie should be called “Whispering Planet Earth.” I’ll admit I have a hearing problem but even with hearing aids this movie was confusing. OK I get it that Sean Penn’s character was greiving over his confused childhood and parents with different points of views as well as trying to understand the visual melodrama ! It might have been fun if I was tripping on acid maybe, kinda like the “2001 A Space Odessy ” adventure. I kept listening and watching for it to come together but only saw two partial films. One about a fimily that in truth is probably nearly not as disfunctional as most in these times ( because the 50’s and 60’s were only stressful because we imagined a nuclear holocaust as we scrambled under our school desks for bomb drills weekly) and the other film I think was about Planet Earth’s birth and death. The visuals were awe inspiring for a minute but again there was little that I understood about the stories substance that tied it all together. Brad Pitt and Sean Penn and the characters were great, to bad the movie was void of any recognizable dialog and substance, even the tree was confusing.