#942: MALICK, Terrence: The Tree Of Life (2011)
MALICK, Terrence (United States)
The Tree Of Life [2011]
Spine #942
Blu-ray
The Booklet
Forty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones and a 2011 piece on the film by critic Roger Ebert.
Commentary
None.
Extended version
Of the film featuring an additional fifty minutes of footage.
The Tree Of Life [2011]
Spine #942
Blu-ray
Four decades into an already legendary career, Terrence Malick realized his most rapturous vision to date, tracing a story of childhood, wonder, and grief to the outer limits of time and space. Reaching back to the dawn of creation, Malick sets a story of boyhood memories on a universal scale, charting the coming of age of an awestruck child (newcomer Hunter McCracken) in Texas in the 1950s, as he learns to navigate the extremes of nature and grace represented by his bitter, often tyrannical father (Brad Pitt) and his ethereal, nurturing mother (Jessica Chastain, in her breakout role). Achieved with the aid of cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki and production designer Jack Fisk, the Palme d'Or-winning The Tree of Life marks the intimately personal, cosmically ambitious culmination of Malick's singular approach fo filmmaking.
139 minutes
Color
5.1 Surround
1:85:1 aspect ratio
5.1 Surround
1:85:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2018
Director/Writer
Terence Malick was 68 when he wrote and directed The Tree of Life.
Other Malick films in the Collection:
#651: Badlands (1973)
#409: Days Of Heaven (1978)
#536: The Thin Red Line (1998)
#826: The New World (2005)
The Film
Other Malick films in the Collection:
#651: Badlands (1973)
#409: Days Of Heaven (1978)
#536: The Thin Red Line (1998)
#826: The New World (2005)
The Film
“Now the earth was astonishingly empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water.” — Genesis 1:2
“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? — Job 38:4, 7 (title card)
“You can’t run into the same river twice” — Heraclitus
Story
(Whispering) “Brother … mother … it was they who led me to your door.”
Fade up from black: an orange blob in outer space is dancing. Fade back to black.
(Mother): “The nuns taught us there are two ways through life — the way of nature, and the way of grace.”
Mr. O’Brien (Brad Pitt) is nature; Mrs. O’Brien (Jessica Chastain) is grace. Both inhabit their characters (Pitt has never given a stronger performance) completely — not a trace of artifice.
Their kids (all fabulous) are Jack (Hunter McCracken), R.L. (Laramie Eppler) and Steve (Tye Sheridan). Only Sheridan continued acting (he stars in Spielberg’s Ready Player One [2018]).
And Sean Penn is Jack as an adult.
**
Malick never makes it easy on the viewer, especially on first viewing. Things are happening, but we can’t really decipher it all. It’s not necessary. The film pulls you along for the Malick ride, and if you sit back and let it all wash over you, you’ll end up feeling like you’ve experienced something very very special.
Of course, the other important story is the history of the universe. No small thing, and it is told with some of the most awesome cinematic imagery you could imagine …
Photography
Every frame a perfect composition.
Sound Design
Perhaps the most important element to what makes this film so great. From the softest whisper, or rumbling undertone, this is cinema that speaks to the soul’s ear more than most films manage to do. There are long stretches with no dialogue, so the sound design plays a huge, important role.
Music
John Tavener: Funeral Canticle.
Francesco Lupica: Cosmic Beam Take 5 [see The Thin Red Line (1998) {Spine #536}] for details about the Cosmic Beam.
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1
Arsenije Jovanovic: Faunophonia Balkanica
Giya Kanchelli: Morning Prayers
Michael Baird: Wind Pipes
Klaus Wiese: Ta Há 1
Jovanovic: Approaching
Tibor Szemzo: Snapshot from the Island
Lupica and Lee Scott: Troops Advance in the Grass
David Hykes: Ascending and Descending
Zbigniew Preisner: Lacrimosa 2
Hector Berlioz: Domine Jesu Christe (Requiem)
Ottorino Respighi: Siciliana da Antiche Danze ed Arie Suite III
Tavener: Resurrection in Hades
Johannes Brahms: Symphony No. 4
Bedrich Smetana: My Country
Gustav Holst: Hymn to Dionysus
François Couperin: Pièces de clavecin
J.S. Bach: Fugue, BWV 565
Henryk Mikolaj Górecki: Symphony No. 3
Hanan Townshend: Hymn 87
J.S. Bach: Well-Tempered Clavier
Robert Schumann: Piano Concerto
Wiese: Klangschalen 2
Modest Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition
Berlioz: Harold in Italy
Barry Guy: After the Rain: Antiphon
Townshend: Eternal Pulse
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Piano Sonata No. 15 in F Major, K. 533
Jovanovic: Sound Testament of Mount Athos
Jovanovic: Ma Maison
Plus the bits of score from composer Alexandre Desplat.
Film Rating (0-60):
57
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Forty-eight page booklet featuring an essay by critic Kent Jones and a 2011 piece on the film by critic Roger Ebert.
Jones:
“I think that for Malick the imitation of nature is intensified and purified to such a degree that it becomes a devotional act. We are accustomed to describing works of art we like as ‘personal’ and ones we don’t care for as ‘impersonal,’ but that gets us only halfway there … the committed artist’s engagement with his or her material runs so deep that it can only begin with the personal and then arrive at another plane, the mysteriously impersonal and unnameable. In all of Malick’s films, everything is allowed to speak: the wind … the lighting of a candle … a meteor crashing to earth … a newborn baby’s moving arms and legs … a parched front lawn … the body of a drowned boy … a father’s sudden self-reckoning … the beginning of life and the end of time. Each image speaks the awe-inspiring mystery of its own existence, and radiates and resounds in harmony with the question: What is this?”
Ebert:
“Malick’s film is a form of prayer. It created within me a spiritual awareness, and made me more alert to the awe of existence. I believe it stands free from conventional theologies … it functions to pull us back from the distractions of the moment, and focus us on mystery and gratitude.”
Commentary
None.
Extended version
Of the film featuring an additional fifty minutes of footage.
Mostly covering the period where Mr. O’Brien is out-of-town.
Exploring The Tree of Life
A 2011 documentary featuring collaborators and admirers of Malick’s, including filmmakers David Fincher and Christopher Nolan.
Exploring The Tree of Life
A 2011 documentary featuring collaborators and admirers of Malick’s, including filmmakers David Fincher and Christopher Nolan.
These two great filmmakers are at a loss for words. You can see their jaws dropping.
Interviews
With actor Chastain and senior visual-effects supervisor Dan Glass.
Interviews
With actor Chastain and senior visual-effects supervisor Dan Glass.
Chastain is gobsmacked by her own performance, which was obviously carefully molded by Malick. She grew to love the kids as if they were her own — and it shows …
Video essay 1
By critic Benjamin B about the film’s cinematography and style, featuring audio interviews with DP Emmanuel Lubezki, production designer Jack Fisk, and other crew members.
Video essay 1
By critic Benjamin B about the film’s cinematography and style, featuring audio interviews with DP Emmanuel Lubezki, production designer Jack Fisk, and other crew members.
Interview
With critic Alex Ross about Malick’s use of classical music.
Ross covers the above list (Music), speaking about every piece and the scene which it accompanies.
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