Directed by:
Terrence MalickScreenplay:
Terrence MalickCinematography:
Emmanuel LubezkiCast:
Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Fiona Shaw, Joanna Going, Kimberly Whalen, Jenny Shakeshaft, Will Wallace (more)VOD (3)
Plots(1)
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). Shot with nimble attention to life’s most fleeting moments by Emmanuel Lubezki, the Palme d’Or–winning The Tree of Life marks the intimately personal, cosmically ambitious culmination of Malick’s singular approach to filmmaking. (Criterion)
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Reviews (9)
This film is only missing a robot prostitute from the future, otherwise it has everything. It’s very hard to digest, maybe it has a satisfactory answer to the question of life, the universe and everything, but I was unable to find it. Yet it has quite a few moments that I liked that were either though-provoking or just visually beautiful, so in the end I was less bored than I’d expected. That said, at home on the computer, with a plethora of things to distract me, I wouldn’t manage it.
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While The New World finally suited me in its poetics, in its spiritualism, I perceive The Tree of Life differently. It's really odd to watch it for Sean Penn or Brad Pitt, as they are definitely not the lead actors. The main protagonist is Malick's vision and the main attraction is the editing.
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Malick’s piece tells a lot about a life of the dominant species on earth, and amazing space and earth-shaping interludes shows its futility in the overall context. That entire trivial part with the family and typical problems fades away in the void of creation. We have our own unique place in space, that is important for us, the most important, but we should never forget that we are mere dust. Sometimes it’s good to just stop for a while and ponder a little. This is a visual masterpiece and the music is a chapter on its own. And Brad Pitt as a fatherly figure surpasses himself.
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Beautiful images, perhaps even some poetry at times, but the emotions are fleeting. Brad Pitt's performance is phenomenal, and overall the film is more than controversial in terms of what it represents, how it speaks to the audience, and what it is actually about. One big unknown, and Terrence Malick aspires to be one of the greatest eccentrics in Hollywood.
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Critics will argue how personal and at the same time magnificent this film is, showing film art in its original form, that it is another similar film to "2001: A Space Odyssey". However, unfortunately, it is also a mishmash on which Malick has worked for years of his life. True, he works incredibly long on every film of his, but in this case, the result is simply not as well visible. The story here is fleeting, and it is also not complicated in any way. Actually, it is about the coming-of-age of one boy in a family where things are not entirely simple. Mainly due to the character of the father, brilliantly portrayed by Brad Pitt, which is probably the biggest asset of the film. He is not in a classically positive role but, on the contrary, plays a believable character with both light and dark sides. The rest of the film is... I don't know. Some will say that it is a philosophical contemplation of our own lives, and I say that Malick thought too much about where we actually come from and where we are heading. From this meditation came a strange collage that at one moment reminds of a great retro drama, in the second moment resembles "Walking with Dinosaurs", only to finally turn into an ode to classical music. What pleased me the most was the inclusion of Smetana. After the first notes, I didn't want to believe it, but you simply cannot mistake "Vltava" for anything else. Such a beautiful composition is simply unique. Furthermore, Malick is not original, but represents a modern pop cultural work that pretends to be the creation of a great artist dealing with his childhood and adolescence anxieties. If he had put it in a slightly more accessible form, maybe he would have dazzled audiences on a broader scale. But as the film's supporters defend, this is an opus for open minds. I believe that I have an open mind, but I could also look for divine meaning in every dried-up spit. More: http://www.filmovy-denik.cz/2012/08/warrior-x-ms-1-sibir-5x-rychle-zbesile.html
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