I've just returned from watching Terrence Malick's latest film The Tree of Life and felt compelled to write about it in my blog. It is a truly extraordinary work of art and I recommend it to everyone. It is something very special and rare: a captivating film that combines the mundane with the philosophical, the emotional with the intellectual, and the beautiful with the thoughtful. It is a film about many things: memory, spirituality, existence, faith, growing up, family life, the beginning of the universe, and many other things besides. Although this will sound vague for those who haven't seen it, the film is truly about life in the broadest sense.
The film can be thought of as consisting of two parts: on the one hand there is a family drama, told mostly from a middle aged man's perspective as he looks back on his childhood. The sections of the film that focus on this are emotionally rich and the child-actors deserve special mention as they play their roles very convincingly. Brad Pitt's character, the father of the family, is a complex one. He is a strict, disciplinarian father who occasionally takes things too far. However, he is also loving, protective and takes an active role in shaping his children's lives. The mother, played by Jessica Chastain, is perhaps a less interesting character since she is mainly portrayed as embodying more positive aspects. She is graceful, gentle, hard-working and full of love. But we don't see much more from her. None the less, the role is well acted. As I said though, the main stars for me are the children, and in particular Hunter McCracken, who plays the young Jack (Sean Penn plays Jack as a middle-aged man). For me the most striking feature of his performance was his facial expressions. He often looks frustrated, angry and confused, and he portrays these qualities perfectly.
The second part of the film concerns the more philosophical and spiritual aspects, which are told through long sequences of images with either no dialogue or short monologues. Whilst there are some shorter sequences which interrupt the family drama portions, there is one very long sequence which some cinema viewers have apparently dubbed The Dawn of Time sequence. This sequence of images combines space photography, computer graphics of bacteria, footage of oceans and various sea creatures, and something which I'll leave as a surprise for you! This sequence reminded me of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, and indeed the film itself has been liked to Kubrick's classic from 1968. The images in Malick's film are on a much grander scale though, and in fact I would venture that it is probably the boldest and most impressive piece of cinematography that I've ever seen. Malick has become known for his cinematography, and I recommend his earlier film Days of Heaven as a great example of beautiful cinematography.
I won't describe the film in any more detail as this post is really just about recommending the film to those who have yet to see it, and I don't want to spoil it. For the same reason, I will refrain from interpretations. However, perhaps at a later date, and after viewing the film at least one more time, I might offer some thoughts on the film. For now though, let me just say again that I think everyone should go and see this film in the cinema if they can. This is an epic and inspiring film, and must, if possible, be seen on the big screen. There were moments when the combination of extraordinary images with powerful music made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end. In fact, it's been many years since I've felt such electricity in the cinema. I hope you will all get a chance to see this film. I'm sure it will be an unforgettable experience.
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