PIC of the Week – The Tree of Life
Article series by Ray Schillaci
Perhaps the most comprehensive contemplation on life ever placed on film, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life is gorgeous, infuriating, thought-provoking, and to some, even boring. Criterion Collection awards fans with not only a bolder looking picture than ever before with a new 4K scan, but an unexpurgated version of Malick’s vision with a whopping extra fifty minutes of film footage. To some, that may be a curse never worth visiting, but to others it will be a fascinating look into this maverick filmmaker’s monumental achievement.
The Tree of Life is not conventional filmmaking, but thank God for that. In simple terms, Malick’s story concerns a family in Waco Texas during the ’50s. The oldest son experiences the loss of innocence and wrestles with his parents’ conflicting views on life. For any other filmmaker, this might have been a small family drama. But, Malick tackles the big themes that include the meaning and inception of life, and how small our problems can be compared to the vastness of the universe.
Brad Pitt plays the strict patriarch with a pessimistic view that only sees a hard and corrupt world that could take advantage of his sons if he doesn’t prepare them for what’s in store. His views are buffered by his wife, played by Jessica Chastain in her breakout role, and although authoritarian as well, she has more hope and wants to introduce her children to the wonder of what life has to offer.
Tye Sheridan, who some may remember from Spielberg’s Ready Player One, has his first role as the oldest son that the story revolves around. But again, the actors take a back seat to Malick’s contemplations on life in general. They are the background to his ideas and thoughts like never before. And, some may even go as far as to say this is an experimental film out to challenge us as viewers, daring us to think and come away with so many questions and few answers, which life itself can be full of. All the while delivering a visual feast for the eyes and soul.
Malick has wowed audiences at every turn of his career beginning with his introduction as a writer/director of the bleak and beautiful Badlands starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. The story depicted a young couple on a killing spree in South Dakota badlands. No one had come onto the scene capturing such brilliant images since Kubrick.
From there, Malick followed up with Days of Heaven. A young upstart farm laborer convinces the woman of his dreams to marry their dying boss in hopes of inheriting the farm. Once again, Malick was heralded as an oeuvre. It was almost as if the actors were secondary to the images he captured on film. The way he portrayed the rhythm of the wheat fields was almost more interesting than his actors, which didn’t do any favors for Richard Gere or Brooke Adams. Stepping into a Malick film was like walking into breathtaking art gallery.
Malick would eventually fall in that very small category of obsessive filmmakers who did not care how long a project would take as long as his vision was intact. His stories became secondary to his contemplations as he proved with his tale of the conflict at Guadalcanal with The Thin Red Line, which won him The Golden Bear prize at the Berlin Film Festival. He was also named Best Director by both the Chicago Film Critics Association and New York Film Critics Circle. And, once again Malick’s vision superseded the likes of Sean Penn, Nick Nolte, Woody Harrelson and the entire all-star cast.
Malick’s mark would always be his imagery, and as time passed his storytelling would be less and less conventional until it culminated with 2011’s The Tree of Life, landing him one of the most prestigious awards in film, the Palme d’Or. But, the movie was without dialogue, and clocking in at two hours and nineteen minutes, proved to be a chore for many viewers. Malick’s journey is a splendid gateway as to why we are here, our purpose, hopes and dreams.
The Tree of Life brings to mind the 1982 experimental film Koyaanisqatsi, taken from the Hopi word meaning “life out of balance.” That was also a film that taxed the patience of viewers, but was lauded as a brilliant statement on the human condition and spawned two sequels. The big difference for me was that the Qatsi Trilogy score annoyed the heck out of me. Philip Glass for me is not easy to listen to, especially over two hours of it drilling into my head. Alexander Desplat’s The Tree of Life score is far more accessible to the average audience, and is in perfect tune with Malick’s imagery.
As mentioned, Criterion spares no expense delivering a brilliant 4K scan to their Blu-ray edition that has been approved by Malick and his cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki. Audio is a distinctive 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. Extras include:
¥ Exploring The Tree of Life, 2011 documentary featuring collaborators and admirers including David Fincher and Christopher Nolan
¥ New interviews with Jessica Chastain and senior visual-effects supervisor, Dan Glass
¥ New video essay by critic Benjamin B about the film’s cinematography and style, featuring audio interviews with Lubezki, production designer Jack Fisk, and other crew members
¥ New interview with critic Alex Ross about Malick’s use of classical music
¥ Video essay from 2011 by critic Matt Zoller Seitz and editor Serena Bramble
¥ Trailer
¥ An essay by critic Kent Jones and (Blu-ray only) a 2011 piece on the film by critic Roger Ebert
Best Price – DeepDiscount.com – $26.99
