It is a bit hard to talk about this movie. First, I need to mention that in the session I was in, there was some kind of problem with the copy that was being projected in terms of editing. It seemed to be a mix of two different films: one was a documentary for National Geographic and the other one was Terence Malick's movie and these two got mixed during editing and that editing was made in a Mac, that's why I kept seeing Mac's screensaver at some points in a movie.
Obviously this is just a (bad) joke that I am using to talk about a film that carries some of the most beatiful images I've ever seen on film. When you read about The tree of life there will always be someone mentioning the dinoussaurs and the big sun and the screensavers (sic). But that's not the movie. It's part of it, not pivotal but complementary to the movie. How about the rest of the movie? How was it? It was wonderful. It's not simply the photography that is wonderful and the beatiful photography wasn't just present in those "documentary-kind" portions of the movie. It was always present along with some of the most beatiful pieces of music ever created. It is easy to compare this movie to Kubrick's 2001 A Space Odissey but some of the most fantastic parts in the movie are nothing close to Kubric's style and story types.
Let me illustrate this by explaining how one of my favourite aspects of the movie is simply about the way he films and presents the family. So, the movie follows the life of a young couple as they are about to become parents and follows from birth, the childhood of Jack and his two little brothers. At this point, everyone mentions how these kids are raised by a mother that follows the way of grace and by a father that represents a tougher view of life, closer to Nature's competitive system. But that's one very restrict metaphysical opposition that I felt like a limitation of the movie. What I found incredible in this part of the movie is how it felt like. What it really felt like was that Terence Malick spent a decade with this family and taped most of their moments in everyday life. At the end of this decade, he started editing a film of about an hour about this decade. It's a brilliant work of editing that was only possible by having thousands of hours of filming made before hand.
I could say more about this movie as I think this movie will be part of movie history and as most movies that reach this status, it will be greeted with love and hate to the same extent. But for now, the only thing I feel like being left to say is: You can say whatever you want about the movie but I consider that it is impossible to say that this is not a fantastic piece of work and that's why this movie made the list.
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Just saw the movie yesterday too. But I disagree with you. Yes, I liked the part about the family. But the rest was like a modern art piece to me. I'll go to a museum if I want that. And if I am interested about the origin of life, I'll read a book. I think the message of the movie was either too vague or too big. It could have been smaller; only about the family. Now I felt like enjoying only one hour of the 2 hour and 20 minutes movie. The rest of the time I got irritated by the director wanting to trigger an easy evolution versus religion debate. Was that an afterlife on the beach? Nevertheless, I thought that part got in the way of the family part. I was disappointed. Beautiful photography, yes. But a poor and snobbish attempt to try to make the audience think in my view.
ResponderEliminarI just re-read what I wrote above and the more I read it the more I realize I don't disagree with you to a large extent. In fact, the only thing I disagree is that I don't think that the "other" part of the filme got in the way of the family part. It may have been too ambitious and too off but, for me, it didn't limit the other family part. Moreover, I also agree with the snobbish easy attempt to trigger the evolution vs religion debate. It would have been far more inteligent and subtle to just insert a pic of a flying spaghetti monster.
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