 | Director: Terrance Malick Stars: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Hunter McCracken |
Review:
To be honest I havent even heard of the name Terrance Malick until The Tree of Life (2011) won the Palme d'Or of the Cannes Film Festival 2011. After a little researching he is fairly unknown and has only directed a few movies before. The whole affair gets dramatic when Terrance Malick was banished from the festival due to his Nazi comment, but won the prize afterall. Does Cannes give him the prize to show how im-political the festival is? You'll be the judge.
So I went to see it, fully aware of people's comment of it being boring, having no clue what's going on, and dont know what the plot is. Firstly there is no plot. There is even no character. The whole movie is about a life. The images of universe would represent the state before we were born: somewhere in the universe, maybe some kind of spiritual existence, and then life forms as microscopic organism. Then we see birth, as an infant child and learning to walk. As the movie progress life complicates. We have emotions: jealoucy, hatred, sorrow. We goes through death, have problems with our father, financial difficulties. It was not a story but an attempt of show us and remind us what life is. From as simple as trees, grasses, water, to as complex as human relationship.
Some criticize the movie of having no new throughts about life. I would have to say it has to be this way. We all have our own reasons of being as complex as we are. The point that we all agree is we cant go back to the way of a child. That is why most arguing dialogues are muted. The reason does not matter. It just try to remind us how simple it used to be, and how irrational we was. The viewpoint is generic since we all goes through the phases of doubts of our parents love and dislikes of our father. It is not a perspective but a display of different impacts that each adds to our complexity of life.
Frankly it would be pretentious to say this movie is not boring. It is. The universe image can be cut shorter and I could not figure what the dinosaur scene adds. I have some idea of getting what life is long before human influence, but I am not sure. Also Brad Pitt and Sean Penn does not have real function but to trick people in. Especially Sean Penn, which actually gets nothing to do or say but walking around. Would it still won the Palme d'Or if some unknown actor plays the part of Brad Pitt and Sean Penn?
I do not hate this movie, but I may not watch it for the second time. I think I do get it, but I think there is better movies this year. I makes me think of my relationship with my father, but having a hard time to get into the whole god thing since I aint Christian. Afterall, the Cannes festival is more or less political biased.
To be honest I havent even heard of the name Terrance Malick until The Tree of Life (2011) won the Palme d'Or of the Cannes Film Festival 2011. After a little researching he is fairly unknown and has only directed a few movies before. The whole affair gets dramatic when Terrance Malick was banished from the festival due to his Nazi comment, but won the prize afterall. Does Cannes give him the prize to show how im-political the festival is? You'll be the judge.
So I went to see it, fully aware of people's comment of it being boring, having no clue what's going on, and dont know what the plot is. Firstly there is no plot. There is even no character. The whole movie is about a life. The images of universe would represent the state before we were born: somewhere in the universe, maybe some kind of spiritual existence, and then life forms as microscopic organism. Then we see birth, as an infant child and learning to walk. As the movie progress life complicates. We have emotions: jealoucy, hatred, sorrow. We goes through death, have problems with our father, financial difficulties. It was not a story but an attempt of show us and remind us what life is. From as simple as trees, grasses, water, to as complex as human relationship.
Some criticize the movie of having no new throughts about life. I would have to say it has to be this way. We all have our own reasons of being as complex as we are. The point that we all agree is we cant go back to the way of a child. That is why most arguing dialogues are muted. The reason does not matter. It just try to remind us how simple it used to be, and how irrational we was. The viewpoint is generic since we all goes through the phases of doubts of our parents love and dislikes of our father. It is not a perspective but a display of different impacts that each adds to our complexity of life.
Frankly it would be pretentious to say this movie is not boring. It is. The universe image can be cut shorter and I could not figure what the dinosaur scene adds. I have some idea of getting what life is long before human influence, but I am not sure. Also Brad Pitt and Sean Penn does not have real function but to trick people in. Especially Sean Penn, which actually gets nothing to do or say but walking around. Would it still won the Palme d'Or if some unknown actor plays the part of Brad Pitt and Sean Penn?
I do not hate this movie, but I may not watch it for the second time. I think I do get it, but I think there is better movies this year. I makes me think of my relationship with my father, but having a hard time to get into the whole god thing since I aint Christian. Afterall, the Cannes festival is more or less political biased.
