I know we usually don’t write about others’ work here on Projekt, but in this case, I couldn’t help myself. Yesterday, I went and saw Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life. It is his 5th full length feature in 38 years of directing and has been in the making for 30 years. I think the main reason why I have this urge to share this epic movie is the fact that I believe it is a very important one. Malick explores a lot of themes but the key one, at least to me, is the exploration of our role in the universe, and I found myself reflecting on my own life. It is important because as we ponder our place in this vast expanse, like Carl Sagan asks us to do in Pale Blue Dot, our perception on things — life, people, nature — everything that surrounds us, invariably changes.

One lasting feeling, walking out from the theatre, was the raw love and joy of the children in the movie and how, over time, through their father’s (Brad Pitt) own failures and frustration, they begin to loose that feeling to anger, insecurity & hatred. I saw a TED talk the other day by Ron Gutman, on smiling. Children apparently smile up to 400 times a day whereas the majority of adults smile around 20 times. Says a lot doesn’t it? Studies has shown that smiling feels like having 20 bars of high-quality chocolate or getting 25 000 GBP in cash. The joy expressed in the early parts of the movie is a good representation of this. Their joy couldn’t be translated into material goods — the grown up version of the oldest brother Jack is played by Sean Penn, as a successful architect in a cold milieu, and though he has a beautiful house, creative job and wife/girlfriend, he feels detached from that world and dreams of the childhood days of simple joy. Or as the mother (played by Jessica Chastain) puts it in one of many silent monologues — “Unless you love, your life will flash by”.

The true genius of Malick isn’t just the incredibly interesting concepts and how they are open to interpretation, it is also the way it is shot. The older brother Jack’s first meeting with his newly born brother feels so real that you can reach out and touch it. Malick, having studied philosophy at Oxford, has surely an intriguing view on life and what role movies & art generally should play in a society. I, for one, am extremely happy to see something subversive in the middle of Hollywood — challenging the predictable themes of the vast majority of movies being pumped out every year.

In a way, the major theme of the movie felt like a merge between religion and science. You have the magnificent scenes or tremendous scale, from a supernova to tiny cells — and then the deeply religious mother along with a hint of an afterlife in the closings scenes. I feel like the movie shows a perspective on how we deal with the big questions in a world where religion is largely discarded (at least in Western Europe) through the advances in science. Where do we fit in in this vast expansive universe? Being an atheist, albeit a very spiritual one, I found myself thinking about these mind-boggling questions once the left hemisphere of my brain had finally succumbed to the fact that this wouldn’t be the ordinary Hollywood movie with the predictable ending, with a cleansing ending full of catharsis, telling you everything is ok. And although this movies strayed away from that notion, I still left the cinema with an incredibly strong sense of that cleansing feeling. That we should love with our whole heart, whether or not our time on this earth is completely insignificant in the scope of all things. And that this world is infinitely beautiful at all scales and angles. I don’t know if a movie can do more than that. Usually being amongst nature makes me realise this but this piece of art was just as strong.

Sadly, a lot of people in the audience did not share my feelings and held onto the calculating emotion of ‘when is this movie going to start?’, ‘where’s the plot’ and so forth. They couldn’t let go of the usual structure and just let themselves be swept up by the beauty of the film. Once the end titles came on, after more than 15 walkouts, there were applause, but not applause by the usual standard, but rather of contempt. I also overhead a man expressing his nervous angst — “There should be warnings for movies like this one”. I suppose it’s not a movie for everyone, but I believe the ones that really got angry from seeing it are the ones that will be the most puzzled by it, although it might take a while for them to realise it. In an age of instant gratification — 2 minute TV news updates and twitter messages limited to 140 characters — a movie might come across as slow, boring or dull and won’t sit well with everyone.

There are so many impression from this movie that I feel I can only skim the surface and I doubt you will have a comprehensive view of it after reading this, even after watching it. It deserves to be seen many times over. I do know however, it is one for the ages, and I can see it being appreciated 40-50 years into our future, just like Kubrick’s A Space Odyssey is still being revered as a piece of genius. Because that’s essentially what it is. I am just happy I got to experience it. Thank you Terrence.

Tree of Life Trailer
Guardian Review
TED — The Hidden Powers of Smiling