FILM REVIEW: The Tree of Life (2011)

Directed by Terrence Malick

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DISCLAIMER: Though addressed below, this review specifically touches on the 188-minute extended cut.

The tree is one of my favorite motifs in cinema. It is a timeless and universal figure, and like the many branches that stem from its sturdy trunk, the symbolic possibilities of the tree are endless - strength, growth, age, eternal life, the passage of time, the sprawling existential paths before us, and many more themes can be singularly encompassed within the beautiful simplicity of this single image. I don’t think any filmmaker has ever used this like Terrence Malick so ambitiously did with The Tree of Life, pondering the entirety of humankind from the engenderment of the very universe we inhabit to our transition into the terrifying yet alluring enigma of the unknown that follows our very end. 

Alongside the likes of 2001: A Space Odyssey or Wings of Desire, The Tree of Life is one of the very few films that applies the form to its absolute extent, employing spectacle, sound, and substance to territories that very few have the competence and insight to realize – it is a film that truly deserves to be title a work of art, all at once poignant, serenading, haunting, and deeply moving. Along with being my pick for the third best film of the decade, it is very debatably the greatest cinematic achievement of the past eight years, and perhaps Malick's most realized vision in an already spectacular filmography.

It’s so ironic that a film that as spectacular and expansive as the film is in visuals and themes, the setting is the polar opposite: a Waco suburb in the 1950s. An angelic voice narrates that there are two ways through life – the way of nature and the way of grace. These two paths are embodied by Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien (Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain, respectively) as they raise their three sons. Mr. O’Brien is the pragmatic authoritarian, stern in his life lessons with his boys. Mrs. O’Brien is the opposite, always skipping along through life, bearing a wonderful smile and always offering a hand that forgives and assists.

This duality confuses Jack (Hunter McCracken), indecisive in which way of life is of worth – he attempts to accept the harshness of is father’s ways the way grace would, but he is not brought to any happiness. When taking the way of nature, it seems someone is always stronger and has the upper hand. This confusion, a sort of eternal crossroads, follows him into adulthood (now played by Sean Penn). He is seemingly a man of success, but the world around him is only oppressively sterile, with all of its towering metropolises of glass.

As you could imagine, this is a film concerned not with plot but with capturing feelings that we’ve all experienced throughout our lives that not even a remotely conventional narrative could convey. With a clever selection of classical music and Emmanuel Lubezki’s masterful cinematography alone, we relish in the goofy antics of the children; we feel the fear under the rule of their father; we feel the warmth of a mother’s comfort; we feel the saddened frustration in what is taken from us, as well as reveling in what is given to us.

But you’ve read all of this before; after all, The Tree of Life is still discussed, debated, and recognized to this very day, something quite uncommon for films in the 21^st Century, but there is now even more to discuss: earlier this week, the Criterion Collection has released a definitive edition of the film, including an extended cut with 50 minutes of additional material.

The extended cut expands a bit more on the film’s material, which was already perfect to begin with – this is why this new cut is rather difficult to talk about. The theatrical cut is perfect enough as it is, therefore one would think that this additional material exists merely as a curiosity piece, which it’s not. This new cut is still just as substantial as its truncated predecessor, to the point where I honestly wonder why the film wasn’t released in this 3-hour form. All that said, it’s still a great film.

The most notable additions; we watch the boys in their experiences in school, and how Jack’s behavior issues cause controversy among his teachers – he is eventually sent to a private school.  In one chapter, tired of her husband’s behavior, Mrs. O’Brien begins spending time with another man (an affair, perhaps?) before being confronted by Mr. O’Brien. Speaking of the latter; though Mr. O’Brien is ultimately an overbearing tyrant, I’ve always found the film to look on with sympathy of a man who simply wants what’s best for his children. Others have not been as understanding, but this new cut brings a bit more insight into his world that makes him the man he is.

The key addition is a deadly storm that serves as the centerpiece of the film. As the children have wandered about the world, beginning to realize that it is not the nice place it is allegedly supposed to be, here comes this huge storm, even resulting in some deaths in town. How can one’s perspective on the world ever return to innocence after such a tragedy? If there is one sequence that should have been left in the theatrical cut, it is this one.

The Tree of Life is a film that has frustrated many confounded viewers, and this new cut will only continue this trend. With a theme as large as life itself, why even try to make sense of it?  We tread many paths in life, not knowing what lies before us, and look at what we’ve become. It’s almost as if it’s the unknown that make us who we are – after all, what is there to live for if we had all the answers? Malick has no interest in answers; only in celebrating the great wonder of our existence.