If A Serious Man was for me last year's Great Film, then The Tree of Life is this year's. Parallels between the two run deep. Both are essentially autobiographical at the core; both movies rest on the foundations of the film makers' childhood memories (the Coen Brothers from Minnesota, Malick from Texas). The Book of Job is central to both. Through the prism of childhood and lost innocence, the very essence of existence is examined - and what it is to be human, what it is to suffer and to cope with suffering and loss. Both films run heavy on philosophy. Malick studied philosophy at Harvard and Oxford, Ethan Coen at Princeton (and both men wrote theses on the works of Wittgenstein).
The Tree of Life was clearly a film I had to see. Malick's Badlands (1973) is in my pantheon of all-time favourite movies ever since student days; the parallels between Malick's first and latest films are obvious - from the long red hair and unusual beauty of Jessica Chastain (mother) or Sissy Spacek (Holly), to the images of Texan suburbia; the narrator's philosophical voice-over; images of a house on fire; shooting at fish in water; long grass; contre-jour lighting; languorous, lyrical photography. Yet is difficult to compare a film you've seen scores of times and can quote passages from, and one you've only just seen.
Central to The Tree of Life is the Big Bang/evolution sequence, a visual answer to the question uttered at the very beginning of the film from the Book of Job: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?"
And so we Malick shows us the creation. From the Big Bang, we see galaxies being formed, planets, volcanoes, life - sentient life - emerging from the seas - dinosaurs... Here we have a 20 minute sequence that touches on yet another of my all-time favourite movies - Koyaanisqatsi. All that's missing is Philip Glass's booming organ soundtrack. Quite beautiful - though what that dinosaur sequence was all about was indeed puzzling.
Against this Malick pitches the tribulations of the O'Brien family, three boys, authoritarian father (Brad Pitt), loving mother (Jessica Chastain). We first see the family as they learn of the death of the middle son at the age of 19, then go back to the birth of the three boys and their childhood, focusing on the eldest, Jack, when he was around 11; his end of innocence. The film flashes forward to the middle-aged Jack asking existentialist questions about life, his relationship with his father, brothers and mother.
I generally like slow-moving films, especially ones rich in philosophy and ones beautifully photographed - and set in 1950s USA. Yet the pace of the main body of the film - Jack's childhood - was too slow (even for me). Too many sequences, stretched out too long (there are rumours that Malick's planning a six-hour long director's cut).
I found myself yearning for light relief; some comedic touches, irony, allusion, something to interpret - and a smattering of popular music.
The Tree of Life is heavy on the classics - (two Polish composers feature in the soundtrack - Górecki and Preisner). The Coens regularly dip into a broader repertoire (as indeed did Malick in Badlands - Nat 'King' Cole, Mickey & Sylvia, Carl Orff, Erik Satie).
The Tree of Life, for its luminous, numinous beauty, is too po-faced; the vision's set out - so what's to interpret? It's not a flawed movie - it's perfect in its own way; it's one man's vision, one man's world view, one man's theology.
Malick's vision is as Christian as the Coens' is Jewish. Essentially, the former is simpler, less questioning; truth revealed. Malick here is the Vicar, the Intermediary between God and Man, passing on received truths. The Coens are the Rabbi, the Teacher. The latter demands interpretation and discussion. The ending of The Tree of Life was disappointing for all the reasons that A Serious Man's ending was so great. "Resurrection of the body and life everlasting amen." There's your answer. Rather than a whole lot of questions running through your mind as Jefferson Airplane reprise Somebody To Love as the screen cuts to black. Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you. The Tree of Life's opening quote is a question, one which is resolved simply - submit to God's grace and eternity awaits.
If you've not seen The Tree of Life - see it - if you have seen it - see it again. I know I will - and soon. But will I see it dozens of times over the years? Maybe.
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