JOIN COCHIN FILM SOCIETY FOR A BETTER FILM CULTURE..
The Tree of Life (2011)
Writer/ Director: Terrence Malick
139 min / USA/ English
A mysterious, wavering light, resembling a flame, flickers
in the darkness. Mrs. O'Brien recalls a lesson taught to her that people must
choose to follow either the path of grace or the path of nature. In the 1960s,
she receives a telegram informing her of the death of her son, R.L., aged
nineteen. Mr. O'Brien is notified by telephone while at an airport. The family
is thrown into turmoil.
In the present day, the O'Briens' eldest son, Jack, is
adrift in his modern life as an architect. One day he apologizes to his father
on the phone for an argument about R.L.'s death. In his office, Jack begins
reflecting and we see shots of tall buildings under the sky, Jack wandering in
the desert, trees that stretch from the ground up to the sun high in their
leaves and scenes from his childhood in the 1950s that all link together and
lead back to the flame.
From the darkness the universe is born, the Milky Way and
then the solar system form while voice-overs ask existential questions. On the
newly formed Earth, volcanoes erupt and microbes begin to form and replicate.
Sea life is born, then plants on land, then dinosaurs.[5] An asteroid tumbles
through space and strikes the Earth.
In a sprawling neighborhood in Waco, Texas live the
O'Briens. The young couple is enthralled by their new baby Jack and, later, his
two brothers. When Jack reaches adolescence, he is faced with the conflict of
accepting the way of grace or nature, as embodied by each of his parents. Mrs.
O'Brien (grace) is gentle, nurturing, and authoritative, presenting the world
to her children as a place of wonder. Mr. O'Brien (nature) is strict and
authoritarian, and easily loses his temper as he struggles to reconcile his
love for his sons with wanting to prepare them for a world he sees as corrupt
and exploitative. He laments his decision to become an engineer rather than to
pursue his passion of becoming a musician. He tries to get ahead by filing
patents for various inventions.
Jack's perceptions of the world begin to change after one of
his friends drowns at the pool and another of his friends is burned in a house
fire. He becomes angry at his father for his bullying behavior and begins to
keep a running tally of Mr. O'Brien's various hypocrisies and misdeeds while
lashing out at his mother for allowing the behavior.
One summer, Mr. O'Brien takes a long business trip. While he
is away, the boys enjoy unfettered access to their mother, and Jack experiences
the first twinges of rebelliousness. Goaded by other boys his age, Jack commits
acts of vandalism and animal abuse. He later trespasses into a neighbor's house
and steals her sheer nightgown. Jack is confused and angered by his feelings of
sexuality and guilty trespass. He throws the stolen lingerie into a river to
rid himself of it. Mr. O'Brien returns home from his unsuccessful business
trip. Shortly thereafter, the plant that he works at closes and he is given the
option of relocating to work in a thankless position within the firm or losing
his job. He and his family pack up to move to the new job location. He laments
the course his life has taken, questioning whether he has been a good enough
person. He asks Jack for forgiveness for his harsh treatment of him.
In the present, adult Jack leaves work. Riding the elevator
down, he experiences a vision of following his young self across rocky terrain,
in the far distant future in which the sun expands into a red giant engulfing
the earth and then shrinks into a feeble white dwarf. Jack tentatively walks
through a wooden door frame, erected on the rocks. On a sandbar, Jack sees
images of death and the dead returning to life. He is reunited with his family
and all the people who populate his memory. His father is happy to see him. He
encounters his dead brother, whom he brings to his parents. Accompanied by a
woman in white and her younger self, Mrs. O'Brien looks to the sky and
whispers, "I give him to you. I give you my son."
Jack's vision ends and he leaves the building smiling.
The mysterious wavering light continues to flicker in the
darkness.
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