The Tree of Life, 2011

The Tree of Life, 2011
Director: Terrence Malick
Cast: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain






Stage: Home theatre


The tree of life in short: The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.


Preps: One of the hot ones in the movies now. I am wondering, if the fame is perceived for a reason or is it just Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, holding hands and packing up the place with people.



Reality: In this case, I am terribly wrong. The cast is brilliant, however the movie itself is strong and solid. It rocks the veins and makes you truly think about relationships you had with your parents, possibly still have and the way they impact the way you are living now. I suppose most of the shown facts about living in 50'es, as it is vividly shown in this piece, is absolutely honest. In sense, that it must have been normal to obey without saying. Kind of militaristic growing up. It is still very alive in some parts of the world, however I suppose that kids nowadays could see this picture as totally wrong - if coming from EU or US, or some more "supposed-to-be" - liberal spots of the world. At least with its outside face, that is.

Growing up, striving for father's attention and when getting it, getting a kick in your face, showing that he loves you. Aiming for some love and getting hard time in return. With the mother, the perfect figure of "father knows what's best for all of us". In that time it wasn't really common for women to work - they were more housewifes than something else. This also meant, they were somehow depending on the male side of the marriage to take care of the financial part and also, almost always represented the firm, solid opinion, with which you could not agree, still had to accept it, as the God of the house spoke.

In this sense, you are following a sad (sometimes even touching in positive sense) story and yearning for love of the parents. Also, in what way it can influence on your personality once you are grown. Somehow in his adult suit, the boy is still inside the man, yearning for his spot in the world. I see him as a distracted person, not knowing the role, making up for all the bad things that he did in his mind, while digging in the past, puzzling his mind with thoughts of past and father.
In some sense, we all need to think about our roots. However, the thinking in this piece evolves in some sort of distortion of one's mind. All deriving from harsh education and bringing up. Being first of three boys sometimes ends in parents giving extra hard time to the first that came. Because they need an example and the environment also expects it. Seen it also in present time, and in my opinion it can create a wreck out of a human being, once he/she is an adult. In this case, excellent show-up, how things can turn and how inverted can one person become with the fear that is chasing him way after him growing up into adult.
Side role, the mother, is also astounding. I think I could never imagine having myself in that period. On the other hand, once you are put into a situation and don't know that it's something else than what it should be (under circumstances, I firmly believe that most of the relationships between parents and children in that time were formalized in the same manner), well, if not proven otherwise, even if someone tortures you, you might believe it's the right thing. I am trying to say, that maybe this arrangement couldn't work in present time in our countries. However, in that time, a lot of distorted people were made in the same manner. Only in that time, it seemed OK with them. You can only count the victims afterwards.


My personal rating: 8,5 (a worthy movie to see and embed into your soul).

The tree of life on IMDB