Tree of Life

[Mu Satach]

Any Terrence Malick fans in the house?

[CMJ]

Yes. Shows you I just don't check this board enough anymore. Malick is probably in my top 3-5 directors period.

TOL is simply one of the most amazing films ever. I saw it back in May when it opened in Los Angeles, and I still haven't gotten it out of my mind.

And yet, I wouldn't recommend it to many people, since Malick is such an acquired taste.

[CMJ]

Did you see it Mu?

[Mu Satach]

I did and absolutely loved it, even though my brain felt overloaded, over-saturated and slightly numb and euphoric. :)

I seriously will need to study it when it comes out on DVD.

[CMJ]

I have read and written an insane amount on the film the last 6 weeks or so. I am not one to label a film a masterpiece until at least 10 years go by from its release, as I feel the only true judge of quality is time.

However, TTOL is the first film since Schindler's List to make me question my rule.

As a friend of mine on another film board said....far more eloquently than I.


Seriously. There are no words. Mostly because there are really few words in this film, but they are so well placed.

This is everything you could ever expect from Malick. This is the film he's been trying to make for 40 years. This is an ode to love, to creation, to grace, to heartbrokenness and grief.

This is a love story to Malick's muse, his mother, played as an Liv Ullman-esque canvas by Jessica Chastain.

This is the flashback of the childhood we all had, and we all long for and wish we had.

This is the soundtrack of existence, of being, of the known and the unknown.

This is sentimentality without being sentimental. This is joyful melancholy, this is a worship song to the one once loathed.

This is the book of Job and the Song of Songs at the same time.

This is absolutely, by far, the most outstanding film I have seen in quite a few years.

[Mu Satach]

Films like it renew and recharge my batteries. :)

[CMJ]

Finally....a 2 minute clip from the Creation reel. The film literally spans the history & future of the universe for those that didn't know.

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[Peter McCoy]

I might give it a go. My younger sister went with a friend to see it and she said it was rubbish - but then she is a silly sixteen year old girl so :p

[CMJ]

I'd say watch a couple of Malick's other films first to see if you get his style.

[Mu Satach]

I agree, I would start with something like the Thin Red Line.

Tree of Life is a very stream of consciousness film that can be unpleasant for some. Two of my friends, one a fellow filmmaker and the other an actor, walked out of the film dumbfounded, confused and felt it was a waste of their time other than to say the visuals were pretty.

Another thing it reminds me of is long form poetry in film.

[CMJ]

I'd actually start with Badlands since its his most conventional. Then I'd go in order (Days of Heaven, Thin Red Line, New World) so you can see how he developed his style.

[Mu Satach]

That's good advice. :)

[CMJ]

Kind of an early version of the Malick philosophic voice over set to music over that develops over his 5 films.

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[Lilaena De'Ville]

New World as in the one with Christian Bale in it? I really liked that movie. Weirdly. :)

[CMJ]

Yes, as John Rolfe.