Lumia

      "Why would Malick go to such trouble to include the Lumia in his film?"  The Lumia originated in the early 18th century when Thomas Wilfred began to explore light as an art form. Before him, "color organs" had been used for colorful art, but he was the one to coin the term Lumia and renamed the color organ the "Clavilux." The Clavilux works like this: inside a closed cabinet is a series of mirrors, warped metals, and painted glass disks. Inserted strategically in the box are beams that create the pattern of light we see. Wilfred said his objective had been to represent "the universal rhythmic flow" in his works, and had refused the filming of his masterpieces because of poor quality products. Up until Malick's crew asked permission to record Wilfred's 'Opus 161,' no Lumia had ever been properly captured. So we can see where Malick faced his challenge. Now the question is why? 
     In one review in the New York Times, the reviewer said that the Lumia can "only represent the creator." In another review for Variety Magazine, the author called it a "yolk colored blob." There has to be a happy medium, right? It can't just mean God, or nothing. I think Malick chose the sequences from 'Opus 161' very carefully. He chose to use only the parts that contained only orange and blue, like we would see if we watched a candle burn. It can be argued that the central idea of Tree of Life  is remembrance of lost loved one, and what's a more generic way to memorialize someone than with a candle? We light candles when we need light to see, when we pray, and when we hold vigil. All three of these can be tied back to the movie in literal and figurative ways. Whenever we see the Lumia in Tree of Life, we hear a whispered voice over from someone in the cast, and most of the time its to hear them ask "where were you?" in tough times. When they pray to ask God questions, maybe they are figuratively asking for guidance, or 'light.' And in the beginning, we see an older Jack light a candle on what is perhaps the anniversary of his brothers death. But was it necessary to the movie?
     Without the Lumia in the movie, there would be no visual to go along with the inner monologues of the cast. There would just be faceless whispers over scenes of a typical family in 1950's Texas. And maybe it's a stretch but maybe the Lumia doesn't just represent a guiding candle. Maybe it does sort of represent the mysterious light we associate with god-like figures. But it could also represent the fire that burns within all humans. We all have a fire for life, with deep inner feelings that we sometimes prefer to keep to ourselves. There are endless meanings we can associate with fire, and light, and I kind of think that was Malick's intention. Everybody interprets things differently based on their personality, and also the state of mind we are in when we watch a movie or read a book, so Malick wanted to use a visual that was so completely subjective to the viewer that there was never just one right answer.