Tree of Life

     Terence Malick's Tree of Life is a masterpiece that has been fifty years in the making. In the sheer complexity of the movie, it is easy to see why. A movie about existence in its purist form, Tree of Life follows one family in their struggles of life and faith. We get no names, barely any dialogue and a confusing timeline for those with little analyzing skills. In this movie we follow the story of Jack, the oldest son of three, as he grows up and loses himself in a world that becomes too much for him. The film starts in the middle of his life, when he loses his 19 year old brother, then goes to him as a middle aged man working a world that has left him behind. But, the movie takes place with him as a little boy, growing up with his brothers and facing the ordinary struggles of an adolescent boy. The boys feel conflicted with polar opposite parents who show their love for each of them in different ways. We don't see much about the youngest son throughout the movie, just the 'battle' for affection between the older, harsher son who takes after the father and the sensitive, middle son that takes after the mother. When the boys witness the drowning of their friend, an aspect of innocence is lost that begins Jack's struggle with faith.
    Much like I did with Hugo, I tried to describe the movie in one word. With this film however, that became much more difficult. In a simple movie about the goodness of faith, with a creepy young kid as the main character, how do you describe it to other people, let alone yourself? To me, the movie was obscure and intricate, but simple and straightforward all at the same time. So I guess it could be summed up as an oxymoron. Like 'jumbo shrimp,' Tree of Life was a simple conundrum. At the time I first saw it, I was so confused and so angry at the movie for being so enigmatic that I couldn't see the big picture where everything tied together. All but a few things make sense now that I have turned it over in my mind, and have rewatched the opening 40 minutes.  As I said, it's a movie about existing in a place that visually took 20 minutes to create at the beginning of the film. Faith and religion are a way to not feel in a place that is unfathomably big. But without reassurance that there is some one there for us, times of hardship can almost seem unfair to those who devote their lives to upholding that faith. In the Book of Job of the Old Testament, Job asks God why he had given him all this success and was now taking it away. In reply, God asks where Job was when he created the universe Job lives in. Similar to the movie where the characters ask the same thing of God when he takes a life.
    As a filmgoer before this class, I was like every other average person in the country that just watched them for entertainment. But after watching more difficult movies in this class, I find myself wanting to over-analyze every little detail and stretch it to the farthest points of the imagination. Especially with a movie as ambiguous as this one, I feel my brain searching for connections that may or may not even be there. This film, at least in my mind, goes above and beyond any movies that we have analyzed so far in class. It broke all molds of most movies in my head when it came to dialogue, how God would be portrayed, and timelines.

PS I have one more question that I didn't even think about until I watched the opening again. Who was the woman? She covered the middle son in a curtain at the beginning, and was then embracing the mother at the end, but she wasn't in the movie at all. Was she God? Was she Death? Just a random person meant to represent eternity?