the tree of life

[Female95]

anyone excited for this?
looks really good

[Spook]

Never heard of it. Is it a book? Movie? :D

[ackmedsgirl666]

yeah what is it.... name doesn't ring a bell :$

[deadpie]

I'm gonna see it on my birthday. It's by Terrance Mallick who also did New World and Badlands. The movie just won the Cannes award or something whatever the fuck it is called, which means it'll probably get in the Oscars later on. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised if it wins. This literally looks like it could be the best mother fucking movie ever made by what I've heard from it. Seriously I'm really excited.

Look it up people. This isn't going to be a movie for you people into stupid ass transformers movies though. Malick's movies are very spiritual, thought provoking, and made to make people feel something strong.

[Contra]

I want to see it, it does look really good!

[deadpie]

I just saw it and have to say this movie isn't for everyone. You have to be willing to see this movie and know this isn't a normal typical film.

This is a very philosophical movie that can be compared to Space Odyssey by Kubrick or even some of David Lynch's works.

The theme is spiritual based and as much as it mentions God I don't believe this movie is made to be religious. The whispers through out are that of prayers and every quote from the Bible they show in this movie is more so about deception and relates to the families experiences.

Is this a film of pure nihilism or coming to faith? Because I'm a more negative person, my interpretation is that at the end of the movie these people aren't in heaven, but a land of lost souls. The people around? They could be other lost souls too. Of course it could also be heaven but I think that would be too obvious.

Existence. That's what this movie is really about. It starts off with the creation of the universe with surreal effects of the world coming together piece by piece.

The loss of the Son in this movie is meant to be the temptation of their faith and even though you can't really get a first person point of view of the main character/boy in the movie, you can tell he's losing faith and growing into something even 'worse' than his father. As it looks, he did make it well as an adult, but still struggles living and doesn't look like he really cares about life at all at that point.

When I was very young, maybe six years old, I had a dream that I've never been able to forget about. This dream is a reflection of my life from childhood to early adulthood. I don't think I ever grew up after adulthood in this dream; maybe because I was already dead. The second part of this dream was nothing but space; big and empty, beautiful but scary. I felt my body lift up through some sort of space cargo shooting out into space and it felt like the entire universe was collapsing next to me.

I keep thinking about this dream all the time and tell myself that if I were to have this dream at least one more time, maybe my insomnia, depression, and nightmares would go away or not matter to me anymore. This dream was something important for me and this movie took me straight back to it.

Sitting in front of a large screen seeing this made me go right back to the second part of the dream. I needed to experience this so much and feel I understand my life more after seeing this movie.

Half of the theater left saying this was a piece of shit. The other half said they were moved beyond words. On my side, I could relate this to my first listen of Rozz Williams Whorse's Mouth album, seeing Swans live for the first time, the moment I left the mental hospital when I was fourteen, and other important experiences of mine.

It feels like someone literally video taped my dream from my childhood, put it on the screen and played it in front of me. The only difference is the dream was larger and the theater has a ceiling to it, unlike the endless space I could see.

Most of you aren't going to like this. Not even my best friend liked this. I know my parents didn't like this. I'm sure most of my friends won't care for it either, but that's ok. They don't have to 'get it'. I'm ok that they won't experience what I've experienced, because then my experience won't really be as monumental to me.

[bvboy]

That's an awesome very personal review. I just saw the movie yesterday and I can't get over how great it was. I wanna go see it again. I actually did see the ending as a heaven -like place, more than a place of lost souls. I know you're not at all religious, and it really is awesome that the film worked for you the way that it did, but I do believe this film has many religious undertones. You mention that most of the references to the bible are about deception, such as the book of Job. However, they also have the character of the mother who is basically Grace incarnate. There is one point where little Jack says in voiceover: "You spoke to me through her, before I knew I believed in You". Also, some of the main themes of the movie are forgiveness, grace and eternity. All of these point to a much more optimistic ending.
That being said, the movie is much more about questioning life and love then it is about finding the answer, so the way in which these scenes of human questioning were shot was what I found most admirable.

Here is my mini review that I posted on flixter:

I don't remember ever seeing a film as majestic as this. It is a true spectacle in the most profound sense of the word.

At the beginning, right after the introduction to the story of the O'Briens, Malick presents an awe-inspiring montage of nature and time with all it's wonder and aggressive imperfections.

Then, a montage of little Jack O'Brien, from the moment he is born, until his early teens. This is shot with the same respect and sense of amazement as the previous sequence of images. We see his day to day life with all it's qualities and flaws.
But this is much more ambitious than an ordinary family story. It asks questions about life, death, grace, and meaning. Jack is constantly aware of everything that happens around him, and he can't help but wonder why it all happens. Why is his father the way he is? Why has God taken his little brother?

The film shows the same grandiosity for the infinite universe and whatever lies beyond as it does for the most intimate of human feelings, because in the end, this is why we have these feelings, to question life, love, and what lies beyond. They are matched in their complexity only by the concepts of time and space.

When it gets more into the family drama, I did feel it dragged on, but that probably says more about me then it does about the film. Because this is, without a doubt, as ambitious as a film can get, and it is shot with so much humility and gratitude, it's overwhelming.

[Harlequin]

The tree of life? only recognition i have with it is from my BOM studies from when i was in Primary...They made a movie? interesting

[Contra]

My main goal was to understand the movie, so when I did I was able to enjoy the movie and I really liked it.
I wasn't really getting all those stuff that seemed random at first, but then it came to my mind: "Oh, this is the creation of the Universe! Since this is a movie about life, they have to explain how it all first started."
I know most people in the cinema didn't like it, perhaps because of all those nature footage, because of the silence or something. One thing I do know, in this movie the silence said more than words could. It is a real movie with emotions and it shows the path of childhood greatly.
The only part I didn't get was the end, but after reading the reviews up there, it makes sense that they were lost souls.
Now, not focusing on the story, I loved the way it was filmed. Oh, and I liked the fact that an A-list celebrity like Brad Pitt didn't outshine the movie itself.

P.S: I really enjoyed the metaphor they did with Jack's birth, of the child swimming out of the flooded house. Truly beautiful thinking.

[Black Eight]

It sounds really good. I can't wait to see it. I love all of Malick's work.

[Perseus]

Where I live, it isn't in theaters yet, but one of my friends really want to see, so I'm gonna probably go with him. Looks good, and Tim's reviews makes it seem the all more interesting.