After the viewing last night (my first time) I came away with this conclusion: I just watched a mixed breed of Planet Earth and home movies, set to classical symphonies. That's about all I felt. But I do have more to say than that.
This film is so dense and has so much going on that I find it hard to comment on it. The main thing I took away from it was that this movie is an experience. You feel it. I cannot really explain any more. That is how I feel it was different from other non-conventional movies.
Time to state some film student blasphemy. For the most part I did not like it. I felt it a waste of my time. If I watched Planet Earth instead I would at least learn something about the universe. I didn't learn anything here. Maybe I'm not supposed to learn anything, that's fine. I didn't learn anything from Pee Wee's Big Adventure either, but I still love that movie.
So instead of learning, what am I supposed to take away from it? Or, what am I supposed to think about, ponder? And this is what bugs me the most: as much as I want to think about it, it gave me nothing to think about. At this point you must think I'm brain dead. Maybe I am. Maybe it's because I had the luxury of growing up learning about creation, sin, Job, and life's existence. Many people don't, and I can see why they would love this movie so much. I basically think about life's existence every day, so nothing in this film was new to me. Fighting families, regretting the past. Whatever it was, I felt like I'd seen it all.
I can see how this is viewed as pretentious. It could be a little, but I think it was made with a genuine passion, and for that I respect it. But I think Malick made it for himself more than anyone. If you wanted to get across the story of Job, I think there are better ways to do it. But again, this movie is more of an experience than a lesson. It is told with a strong voice.
There were things I liked about it. Obviously the cinematography was amazing and powerful. Nothing more needs to be said on that than already has. And I did not mind at all that there was no plot; that doesn't bother me. I was most interested in the family's story. The father-son relationship was interesting, as was the decisions the son made, becoming a jerk like his father. I wish we could've spent more time with them than watching a dinosaur wallow on the beach. Their family was a very nice perspective on life. I just wish the characters themselves would've asked God more questions about 'why?' And I don't need answers, but I wish the questions would've been more obvious.
What Leeper said about seeing the vastness of the universe and the microscopic life forms, then realizing that you're still worth something was interesting to me. I just wish it would have been edited down. I love the debate of 'if evil can exist along with a perfect God.' Asking "where is God in all this pain" is a great starting point for a movie. This one just didn't do it for me.
Not gonna lie, the end was a bunch of BS to me. Having a guy walk through a doorframe in a desert? I'm sure that's powerful to some, but that is just the exact thing I'd write if I was making fun of experimental films. The whole beach thing I found to go on too long and it was boring. Hooray, we all end up together. Again, I want to think about the film, but I'm not finding much to think about.
Needless to say I won't be able to purge The Tree of Life from my mind for years to come.
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