Tree of Life

[Reggie Williams]

What THE FUCK DID I JUST WATCH?

1/10

[Tree hugger]

[Monostradamus]

You do know Terrence Malick directed it, right? Everybody bitching about this movie is complaining cuz they think they're seeing a Brad Pitt family drama, ignoring who the director is. Of course it was this abstract art movie with minimal plot, that's kinda Malick's thing.

I thought it was pretty good, the entire Big Bang/evolution of the earth section dragged on too long (DoK: "lol biblethumper doesn't like that part lol"), but everything else was done beautifully.

It's no Brokeback Mountain, but I give it a 7.5/10

[Reggie Williams]

You do know Terrence Malick directed it, right? Everybody bitching about this movie is complaining cuz they think they're seeing a Brad Pitt family drama, ignoring who the director is. Of course it was this abstract art movie with minimal plot, that's kinda Malick's thing.

I thought it was pretty good, the entire Big Bang/evolution of the earth section dragged on too long (DoK: "lol biblethumper doesn't like that part lol"), but everything else was done beautifully.

It's no Brokeback Mountain, but I give it a 7.5/10

Yeah, I do. I reaaallly like New World, and this movie had some really good parts when it was Brad Pitt and his kids. But the creation of the universe scene where it was 45 minutes of just visuals was too much. The balance was off in this movie, if it was 10 minutes of visuals and rest acting, it would have been good.

[Fpoonsie]

It looked too much like The Fountain from the previews.

Yeah, no thanks.

[DMC]

Is it all zen and shit? If so, no thanks.

[Proxy]

It looked too much like The Fountain from the previews.

Yeah, no thanks.

There's nothing wrong with the Fountain. Tree of Life had similarities. 2001: A Space Odyssey draws comparison as well. These three movies are not good for people that require linear structure in their movies. The Fountain, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Tree of Life are not for impatient people.

Tree of Life was great. IMDB has it 8/10, which I agree with. Cinematography was masterful... not a standard movie by any means.

(Terrence Malick is working on a 6 hr cut of the movie)

[Reggie Williams]

There's nothing wrong with the Fountain. Tree of Life had similarities. 2001: A Space Odyssey draws comparison as well. These three movies are not good for people that require linear structure in their movies. The Fountain, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Tree of Life are not for impatient people.

Tree of Life was great. IMDB has it 8/10, which I agree with. Cinematography was masterful... not a standard movie by any means.

(Terrence Malick is working on a 6 hr cut of the movie)

The Fountain was amazing.

Tree of Life sucked

[Proxy]

The Fountain was amazing.

Tree of Life sucked

While I enjoyed the Fountain thoroughly, it was flawed. The metaphors were too obvious at times, and seemed pretentious. I see The Fountain as a short story told in movie format. That being said, it is one of my favorites.

Tree of Life on the other hand, had no flaws. It was masterfully done. There wasn't any linear structure. In the same fashion that I compare The Fountain to a short story, I compare Tree of Life to a poem or symphony.

From what I've seen, the negative things said about the movie were due to people not understanding it or not having the patience to watch.

It's all a matter of taste though. I don't think it's fair to give a movie a bad rating due to a lack of understanding.

Have you seen 2001: A Space Odyssey?

[Lefty's understudy]

Here's my take on Tree of Life:

The Tree of Life
BY Lefty's understudy / June 2, 2011
cast & credits
Mr. O'Brien Brad Pitt
Mrs. O'Brien Jessica Chastain
Jack Sean Penn
Grandmother Fiona Shaw
Young Jack Hunter
McCracken

Fox Searchlight presents a film written and directed by Terrence Malick. Running time: 138 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for thematic material).
Printer-friendly »
E-mail this to a friend »


Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" is a film of vast ambition and deep humility, attempting no less than to encompass all of existence and view it through the prism of a few infinitesimal lives. The only other film I've seen with this boldness of vision is Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," and it lacked Malick's fierce evocation of human feeling. There were once several directors who yearned to make no less than a masterpiece, but now there are only a few. Malick has stayed true to that hope ever since his first feature in 1973.

I don't know when a film has connected more immediately with my own personal experience. In uncanny ways, the central events of "The Tree of Life" reflect a time and place I lived in, and the boys in it are me. If I set out to make an autobiographical film, and if I had Malick's gift, it would look so much like this. His scenes portray a childhood in a town in the American midlands, where life flows in and out through open windows. There is a father who maintains discipline and a mother who exudes forgiveness, and long summer days of play and idleness and urgent unsaid questions about the meaning of things.

The three boys of the O'Brien family are browned by the sun, scuffed by play, disturbed by glimpses of adult secrets, filled with a great urgency to grow up and discover who they are.

I wrote earlier about the many ways this film evoked my own memories of such time and place. About wide lawns. About a town that somehow, in memory, is always seen with a wide-angle lens. About houses that are never locked. About mothers looking out windows to check on their children. About the summer heat and ennui of church services, and the unpredictable theater of the dinner table, and the troubling sounds of an argument between parents, half-heard through an open window.



(Enlarge Image)
Watching the film, I remembered Ray Bradbury's memory of a boy waking up to the sound of a Green Machine outside his window — a hand-pushed lawnmower. Perhaps you grew up in a big city, with the doors locked and everything air-conditioned. It doesn't matter. Most of us, unless we are unlucky, have something of the same childhood, because we are protected by innocence and naivete.

As I mentioned the O'Brien family, I realized one detail the film has precisely right: The parents are named Mr. O'Brien and Mrs. O'Brien. Yes. Because the parents of other kids were never thought of by their first names, and the first names of your own parents were words used only by others. Your parents were Mother and Father, and they defined your reality, and you were open to their emotions, both calming and alarming. And young Jack O'Brien is growing, and someday will become Mr. O'Brien, but will never seem to himself as real as his father did.

Rarely does a film seem more obviously a collaboration of love between a director and his production designer, in this case, Jack Fisk. Fisk is about my age and was born and raised in Downstate Illinois, and so of course knows that in the late '40s, tall aluminum drinking glasses were used for lemonade and iced tea. He has all the other details right, too, but his design fits seamlessly into the lives of his characters. What's uncanny is that Malick creates the O'Brien parents and their three boys without an obvious plot: The movie captures the unplanned unfolding of summer days, and the overheard words of people almost talking to themselves.

The film's portrait of everyday life, inspired by Malick's memories of his hometown of Waco, Texas, is bounded by two immensities, one of space and time, and the other of spirituality. "The Tree of Life" has awe-inspiring visuals suggesting the birth and expansion of the universe, the appearance of life on a microscopic level and the evolution of species. This process leads to the present moment, and to all of us. We were created in the Big Bang and over untold millions of years, molecules formed themselves into, well, you and me.

And what comes after? In whispered words near the beginning, "nature" and "grace" are heard. We have seen nature as it gives and takes away; one of the family's boys dies. We also see how it works with time, as Jack O'Brien (Hunter McCracken) grows into a middle-aged man (Sean Penn). And what then? The film's coda provides a vision of an afterlife, a desolate landscape on which quiet people solemnly recognize and greet one another, and all is understood in the fullness of time.

Some reviews have said Mr. O'Brien (Brad Pitt, crew-cut, never more of a regular guy) is too strict as a disciplinarian. I don't think so. He is doing what he thinks is right, as he was reared. Mrs. O'Brien (the ethereal Jessica Chastain) is gentler and more understanding, but there is no indication she feels her husband is cruel. Of course children resent discipline, and of course a kid might sometimes get whacked at the dinner table circa 1950. But listen to an acute exchange of dialogue between Jack and his father. "I was a little hard on you sometimes," Mr. Brien says, and Jack replies: "It's your house. You can do what you want to." Jack is defending his father against himself. That's how you grow up. And it all happens in this blink of a lifetime, surrounded by the realms of unimaginable time and space.

[hemann82]

i prefer atlas shrugged

[Reggie Williams]

While I enjoyed the Fountain thoroughly, it was flawed. The metaphors were too obvious at times, and seemed pretentious. I see The Fountain as a short story told in movie format. That being said, it is one of my favorites.

Tree of Life on the other hand, had no flaws. It was masterfully done. There wasn't any linear structure. In the same fashion that I compare The Fountain to a short story, I compare Tree of Life to a poem or symphony.

From what I've seen, the negative things said about the movie were due to people not understanding it or not having the patience to watch.

It's all a matter of taste though. I don't think it's fair to give a movie a bad rating due to a lack of understanding.

Have you seen 2001: A Space Odyssey?

yeah I have.

That was fucking amazing.

But ToL had no balance. You cant ask the audience to just sit through 30-40 mins of visuals with the birth of the universe scene and then go into linear format then out of linear format with more and more visuals. Its balance was wayyyy off.

[Monostradamus]

The only thing i really hated about that part was the shitty CGI dinosaurs. The moment i saw them i rolled my eyes, then laughed at how awful they looked. It was like something,out of a low budget Syfy channel movie. I got the point of the scene but it was still hokey and very poorly done.

[Medvedenko]

I understand this movie is not for everyone, however I found it breathtaking and visually arresting. Now, I can see why people loathe it, however that's almost a benefit of it really. Doesn't sway from the message and it definitely tries to answer the questions of the universe...grace and nature collide.

[Monostradamus]

Also if The Fountain was pretentious, u need to invent a new word to describe Tree Of Life. I loved it, but its about as pretentious as it gets, especially with the news of the 6 hour cut.

[silverblk mystix]

Here's my take on Tree of Life:

The Tree of Life
BY Lefty's understudy / June 2, 2011
cast & credits
Mr. O'Brien Brad Pitt
Mrs. O'Brien Jessica Chastain
Jack Sean Penn
Grandmother Fiona Shaw
Young Jack Hunter
McCracken

Fox Searchlight presents a film written and directed by Terrence Malick. Running time: 138 minutes. Rated PG-13 (for thematic material).
Printer-friendly »
E-mail this to a friend »


Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" is a film of vast ambition and deep humility, attempting no less than to encompass all of existence and view it through the prism of a few infinitesimal lives. The only other film I've seen with this boldness of vision is Kubrick's "2001: A Space Odyssey," and it lacked Malick's fierce evocation of human feeling. There were once several directors who yearned to make no less than a masterpiece, but now there are only a few. Malick has stayed true to that hope ever since his first feature in 1973.

I don't know when a film has connected more immediately with my own personal experience. In uncanny ways, the central events of "The Tree of Life" reflect a time and place I lived in, and the boys in it are me. If I set out to make an autobiographical film, and if I had Malick's gift, it would look so much like this. His scenes portray a childhood in a town in the American midlands, where life flows in and out through open windows. There is a father who maintains discipline and a mother who exudes forgiveness, and long summer days of play and idleness and urgent unsaid questions about the meaning of things.

The three boys of the O'Brien family are browned by the sun, scuffed by play, disturbed by glimpses of adult secrets, filled with a great urgency to grow up and discover who they are.

I wrote earlier about the many ways this film evoked my own memories of such time and place. About wide lawns. About a town that somehow, in memory, is always seen with a wide-angle lens. About houses that are never locked. About mothers looking out windows to check on their children. About the summer heat and ennui of church services, and the unpredictable theater of the dinner table, and the troubling sounds of an argument between parents, half-heard through an open window.



(Enlarge Image)
Watching the film, I remembered Ray Bradbury's memory of a boy waking up to the sound of a Green Machine outside his window — a hand-pushed lawnmower. Perhaps you grew up in a big city, with the doors locked and everything air-conditioned. It doesn't matter. Most of us, unless we are unlucky, have something of the same childhood, because we are protected by innocence and naivete.

As I mentioned the O'Brien family, I realized one detail the film has precisely right: The parents are named Mr. O'Brien and Mrs. O'Brien. Yes. Because the parents of other kids were never thought of by their first names, and the first names of your own parents were words used only by others. Your parents were Mother and Father, and they defined your reality, and you were open to their emotions, both calming and alarming. And young Jack O'Brien is growing, and someday will become Mr. O'Brien, but will never seem to himself as real as his father did.

Rarely does a film seem more obviously a collaboration of love between a director and his production designer, in this case, Jack Fisk. Fisk is about my age and was born and raised in Downstate Illinois, and so of course knows that in the late '40s, tall aluminum drinking glasses were used for lemonade and iced tea. He has all the other details right, too, but his design fits seamlessly into the lives of his characters. What's uncanny is that Malick creates the O'Brien parents and their three boys without an obvious plot: The movie captures the unplanned unfolding of summer days, and the overheard words of people almost talking to themselves.

The film's portrait of everyday life, inspired by Malick's memories of his hometown of Waco, Texas, is bounded by two immensities, one of space and time, and the other of spirituality. "The Tree of Life" has awe-inspiring visuals suggesting the birth and expansion of the universe, the appearance of life on a microscopic level and the evolution of species. This process leads to the present moment, and to all of us. We were created in the Big Bang and over untold millions of years, molecules formed themselves into, well, you and me.

And what comes after? In whispered words near the beginning, "nature" and "grace" are heard. We have seen nature as it gives and takes away; one of the family's boys dies. We also see how it works with time, as Jack O'Brien (Hunter McCracken) grows into a middle-aged man (Sean Penn). And what then? The film's coda provides a vision of an afterlife, a desolate landscape on which quiet people solemnly recognize and greet one another, and all is understood in the fullness of time.

Some reviews have said Mr. O'Brien (Brad Pitt, crew-cut, never more of a regular guy) is too strict as a disciplinarian. I don't think so. He is doing what he thinks is right, as he was reared. Mrs. O'Brien (the ethereal Jessica Chastain) is gentler and more understanding, but there is no indication she feels her husband is cruel. Of course children resent discipline, and of course a kid might sometimes get whacked at the dinner table circa 1950. But listen to an acute exchange of dialogue between Jack and his father. "I was a little hard on you sometimes," Mr. Brien says, and Jack replies: "It's your house. You can do what you want to." Jack is defending his father against himself. That's how you grow up. And it all happens in this blink of a lifetime, surrounded by the realms of unimaginable time and space.

I read this review somewhere else...word for word.

[redzero]

I read this review somewhere else...word for word.

You're shitting me.

[Proxy]

yeah I have.

That was fucking amazing.

But ToL had no balance. You cant ask the audience to just sit through 30-40 mins of visuals with the birth of the universe scene and then go into linear format then out of linear format with more and more visuals. Its balance was wayyyy off.

I can see where you're coming from... I know exactly which transition you're talking about too. I feel similar... I'd like to see the 6 hour cut to give it a final verdict on the balance though. He was tackling a pretty difficult theme.

Just one of those love it or hate it movies.

[Proxy]

Also if The Fountain was pretentious, u need to invent a new word to describe Tree Of Life. I loved it, but its about as pretentious as it gets, especially with the news of the 6 hour cut.

I meant condescending... some of the symbols were a bit too obvious, and it felt as if Aronofsky was babying the audience.

[redzero]

I have no idea why I feel like commenting on this movie months after I originally saw it, but it was a complete mess. The parts with the family were interesting. The parts where Sean Penn wondered around drunkenly in the streets/desert/beach were not interesting. The parts with dinosaurs were bizarre.

[BRHornet45]

sons I am a big movie buff and Malick fan myself, but anyone (for the most part) who claims that they thoroughly enjoyed this movie and/or anyone who bashes others that didn't like it are full of shit and are only saying these things because Malick directed it and they want to try and put themselves on the film critic pedestal. good acting by Penn and Pitt, but the only reason this movie received a best picture and best director nomination at the Oscars is 100% because it was Malick's first film to direct in quite some time.

The Tree of Life should be renamed The Tree of Dog Shit.

[AussieFanKurt]

No Mallick film will ever come close to The Thin Red line

[DMC]

lol "linear structure" is just a euphemism for "makes fucking sense".

[leemajors]

No Mallick film will ever come close to The Thin Red line

yeah he coaxed a real turd out of Travolta in that one

[The Gemini Method]

Personally, I liked the movie--the concept was interesting and well, though many were didn't get the movie, it probably would be better on a blotter tab of acid/and or shroomage.

[silverblk mystix]

Should have made a Director's Cut with the whole universe thing.

And a theater cut with the family's story only.

[AussieFanKurt]

Should have made a Director's Cut with the whole universe thing.

And a theater cut with the family's story only.

That's a pretty good point. It would certainly cater for a larger audience because the story is interesting but a little too frustrating in how its done

[Wild Cobra Kai]

The whole point of the creation scene was that it was God's response to the mother's grief at losing her middle son. It can be interpreted a couple of ways, but my personal one is "Where were you when I made the world?", which is a quote from Job.

It also wasn't 45 minutes long. I believe it clocked in somewhere around 18.

[silverblk mystix]

That's a pretty good point. It would certainly cater for a larger audience because the story is interesting but a little too frustrating in how its done

Although purists might not agree, but it would have probably found a larger audience.

Purists could also opt to buy the Director's cut.

[davidbowie]

classic flick

went back three times to watch in in theater

lubezki is god