The Tree of Life

**shawshankraj** · 16.12.10, 03:20

The Tree of Life

Release Date: May 27, 2011 (limited)
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Director: Terrence Malick
Screenwriter: Terrence Malick
Starring: Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Jessica Chastain, Joanna Going, Jackson Hurst, Fiona Shaw, Crystal Mantecon, Tamara Jolaine, Hunter McCracken, Dustin Allen
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
MPAA Rating: PG-13 (for some thematic material)
Plot Summary:

From Terrence Malick, the acclaimed director of such classic films as "Badlands," "Days of Heaven" and "The Thin Red Line," "The Tree of Life" is the impressionistic story of a Midwestern family in the 1950's. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father (Brad Pitt). Jack (played as an adult by Sean Penn) finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith. Through Malick's signature imagery, we see how both brute nature and spiritual grace shape not only our lives as individuals and families, but all life.

**Blocker** · 16.12.10, 03:28

Just to watch Brad Pitt and Sean Penn in a movie looks like a promising option.

The plot of the movie seems like an interesting story if you like drama

**slikrapid** · 16.12.10, 09:39

hehe, another one of those quasi-spiritual movies that create more confusion/obscuration than clarity concerning their subjects, yet one can almost feel there is something 'deep' or 'significant' or 'valuable' embedded within

two ways? nature/grace? ridiculous, its all the same way - call it the way of universe or the way of consciousness or the way of energy or something else if you like, but essentially its all the same, what varies are its manifestations and those are innumerable, possibly spread across an 'equal' number of realms - now, what can be read 'between the lines' is a global tendency to create artificial divisions (left-right in politics) or to accentuate/widen existing divisions (good-evil, more correctly good-bad) per the old divide & conquer principle - in this example its about a spiritual kind of division into 'the way of nature' (the green agenda, environmentalists, atheists) and 'the way of grace' (formal religion of choice), ie. establishing pre-defined sets of choices from which you can choose those that suit you the most and align yourself with their guidelines, follow it and serve it, which is nothing more than a way to control you, your actions/attitudes/beliefs/options etc.

Originally Posted by online dictionary: grace

a : unmerited divine assistance given humans for their regeneration or sanctification
b : a virtue coming from God
c : a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine grace

a similar officially promoted deception is currently active in the definition of 'living beings' or 'life', where you are encouraged to believe how only humans (human rights), animals (animal rights), plants (plant rights?), organisms (organism rights? notice the absurdity of the whole idea of 'rights') are living, whereas ordinary 'matter' or 'energy' isn't, even though they all consist of the same 'ingredients', they all continuously change (through time), they all share the same environment (or its parts), they all interact and affect each other, they all are in some kind of relationship, they all function in some way, they all transform into something else, etc. - basically they all exist in various forms (manifestations), thus they all are 'beings', their activity/inactivity within their existence IS their life, ie. they are all living, merely in different ways with different activities/abilities, they all have a certain life force that 'keeps things going', regardless whether a being is 'living' or 'decomposing' - perhaps it cannot be 'seen' but its effects can or everything that exists IS this life force, so that this force is likely to be the only 'way', call it the way of universe or the way of consciousness or the way of energy or something else if you like, but essentially its all the same

back to the movie:

'takes fierce will to get ahead in this world' - meaning you need to use your will in order to do something (what you want to do), for everything that comes your way may not be preferable to you, ie. you need to shape things to get 'ahead' (if you want to get ahead, of course)

we see a strong contrast (the filmmakers just love those divisions, eh?) between parental guidance, the father wants strength/force and the mother prefers patience/understanding - a bit of both and you have the winning combination (again, its not about following either one of them or taking sides, but understanding what they mean and choosing your individual/unique way)

'father & mother wrestling inside of him'? a hint at occult androgyny concepts perhaps?

'fall down' (on your knees?) 'and weep, and understand it all, all things' (sun shining, allusions to heaven) - not likely, for when one does get to a final understanding, there will be no place for tears or emotions, since they will be understood as well

'guide us to the end of time' - and you get shots of an ascending spiral church staircase (to heaven), not too subtle, eh?

and then we get another praise to 'love' as if it is some kind of an ultimate tool for 'salvation', since according to them 'jesus is love' (remember those 'choices of control')

finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.

lol, another disinfo, 'souls' are not really lost, they are simply experiencing an existence, exploring it + this, as for faith, the solution is simple: what you experience you also know, everything else is a 'maybe'/'maybe not', notice how 'faith' has a certain element of loyalty/allegiance/servitude:

Originally Posted by online dictionary: faith

1
a : allegiance to duty or a person : loyalty b (1) : fidelity to one's promises (2) : sincerity of intentions
2
a (1) : belief and trust in and loyalty to God (2) : belief in the traditional doctrines of a religion b (1) : firm belief in something for which there is no proof (2) : complete trust

as for the title (its actually the tree of life & death in one depiction/symbol):

Ancient Egypt

* In Egyptian mythology, in the Ennead system of Heliopolis, the first couple, apart from Shu & Tefnut (moisture & dryness) and Geb & Nuit (earth & sky), are Isis & Osiris. They were said to have emerged from the acacia tree of Saosis, which the Egyptians considered the "tree of life", referring to it as the "tree in which life and death are enclosed"

Germanic paganism and Norse mythology

* The tree of life appears in Norse religion as Yggdrasil, the world tree, a massive tree (sometimes considered a yew or ash tree) with extensive lore surrounding it. Perhaps related to Yggdrasil, accounts have survived of Germanic Tribes' honouring sacred trees within their societies. Examples include Thor's Oak, sacred groves, the Sacred tree at Uppsala, and the wooden Irminsul pillar.

Code:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_life

anyone else has thoughts on the subject(s)?

**yoco** · 17.12.10, 19:42

Definitely watching this one

**Blocker** · 18.12.10, 01:52

Originally Posted by slikrapid

hehe, another one of those quasi-spiritual movies that create more confusion/obscuration than clarity concerning their subjects, yet one can almost feel there is something 'deep' or 'significant' or 'valuable' embedded within

What about this one?? The Fountain (2006) - IMDb have you ever watch it? your comment reminds me a little bit of this movie

**Nobody** · 18.12.10, 13:08

Eh. I wouldn't put this on the same plane as The Fountain. This is Terrence Malick we're talking about. He's... well... amazing.

His films are what film should be, an individual experience what can't be summed up in a sentence or two. It's cliche to say you can't nail him down to some genre or style, but he's the closest artist I've found that has what may be called an ethereal, almost formless style. You walk out of his movies with a feeling, not necessarily with an idea.

His cinematography alone is worth the price of admission. All of his movies are just captivating... moving canvases. I am interested to see what type of crowd this movie attracts with the big-name stars that are in it, though. And I suppose there's always the chance of a flop. But I'm keeping my hopes up on this one.

**yoco** · 19.12.10, 13:11

Originally Posted by Blocker

What about this one?? The Fountain (2006) - IMDb have you ever watch it? your comment reminds me a little bit of this movie

I watched this movie some time ago, and I must admit, I didn't really understand what happening

**Blocker** · 19.12.10, 17:39

So yoco,this link will help you The Fountain - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

**slikrapid** · 22.12.10, 15:12

Originally Posted by Blocker

What about this one?? The Fountain (2006) - IMDb have you ever watch it? your comment reminds me a little bit of this movie

the fountain is also a deceptive movie touching on a number of subjects, for example:

the main character fights/attempts to save a life of his female companion by applying previously unknown knowledge (the rare tree sample) where they conveniently don't explain how he got to that idea (meditation, dreams, moment of enlightenment), but it is shown as coming from an unusual/supernatural place

notice how he gets reprimanded for using untested substances - thats the scientific (in this case medical) control over their personnel, where innovation has to go through a standardized process/methodology before it can be approved for further use - remember old/ancient herbal medicine practitioners - they did not have such procedures, yet they managed to have cures for all kinds of diseases/ails, one may imagine they got to their knowledge using similar revelatory techniques

in a few occasions the character is addressing the tree of life (as if it is representing his female companion), saying how he won't let it die - however, since the tree is a symbolic representation of life & death it is absurd to think he has a power to keep it living, its going to live regardless of the characters actions, besides, his appearance in such a realm would also need to be in a form of a tree

this connects with the christian symbolism shown at the beginning - again, however, christianity (or judeo-christianity) may have kept this symbolism alive but its caretakers (pope, bishops, etc.) as well as the originators have corrupted the original meaning, steering it away from ancient sources/origins, transforming it intentionally into a specifically coded body of writings, one that gives a notion of authenticity, that contains modified previous elements, obscured by newly added symbols, redesigned existing symbols and with an alternative shallow/superficial/common interpretation acting as the public/official standpoint/viewpoint - on the outside it is covered with such deceptive veils, yet at its core, under these layers one would find how it matches very well with other ancient writings all over the world

now one might ask why would they go to such trouble and deception - the answer is simple: power & control, they don't want you to figure out how things work on your own, instead they want you to leave this search alone, embrace their guidance, trust their judgment, serve their purpose, follow their cause, choose their way, accept their pre-defined religion as the only source of answers for anything relating to spirituality and beyond - to become dependent on these handlers, whats more on ones that don't deserve trust since they are not transparently disclosing facts concerning neither their origins nor goals, certainly not the essential meaning of the symbolism so widely used, not to mention actions aimed against other beliefs, their representatives and related written material as witnessed throughout the history

then there are a few apologetic scenes, like the inquisitor punishing himself as if he suffered as well (unlikely), mayans shown as savages (whereas its well known who savagely conquered their land), the royalty/conquistadors being supposedly deceived by the inquisitional process or trapped by the religion (whereas they were acting as accomplices to the church), the perceived animosity between various rulers merely a struggle for power/domination - so its not about cross vs. crown, but rather cross & crown ruling over everyone else, dividing the power over their domains of authority (religious & secular) per agreement and supporting each others 'god given' rights to occupy ruling positions

'our bodies are prisons for our souls'? nope, they are simply vessels for the mind/soul/consciousness, an advanced tool if you like

'death frees every soul' - not really, its already free (some constraints always apply regardless of one's state of being), death being merely a transitional stage (similar to life in that particular point)

the supposed sacred dagger (symbolizing the cross, when held by the blade as the priest in the movie does) has a symbol of downward pointing triangle (when held in the hand as its natural usage), representing the female 'principle', which when used by a male (fi. a mayan priest) symbolizes the unification of both principles - the same hint is given in reverse when the dying female companion shows the stars in the sky where she points at an constellation clearly resembling to an upward pointing triangle, representing the male 'principle' - notice that the two are symbolically unified in the hexagram (aka 'six pointed star', 'star of david', 'jewish star') which is another ancient symbol (pre-dating judaism of course) - further, they cryptically talk about the birthplace of life 'in the center', the 'navel' of earth, but what it means is that the feminine principle is that which gives birth to life, so symbolically the males 'need a map' towards the female principle in order to reach a unification, ie. completion/wisdom/understanding/spiritual awakening, which can be related to the process of 'eating' from 'the tree of knowledge' or to a degree also with 'drinking' from the 'fountain of youth', hence the movie name 'the fountain' - however, they completely reversed this essential meaning into the opposite, continuously showing us the triangle pointing upwards, ie. the male principle on numerous occasions (the stars though a telescope and through the inverted dagger, the map), the male main character, the main female character re-telling the story, praising it, etc. - for more see under 'first father' below - this movie is about people aspiring to eternal life (with attempts to prolong current life), which they supposedly found in death (as supposedly foretold by mayan mythology) while worshiping the male principle and supporting the currently active patriarchal dominance

the ring represents a bondage (similar to its usage in marriage), but also a unity, it was given to the main character by a 'god chosen' representative (queen) under the sun (symbolizing god) to bond him to his task, one of divine character/importance, to find the 'garden of eden', ie. return from where he came from, to come 'home' - the rest is a misinterpretation serving to accentuate or support their wishes to stay together, as well as a motif that emerges throughout the movie, where they constantly struggle to 'live together' (forever), ie. remain in a connection/contact, just because in this particular (re)incarnation (which is not a theme used in the movie) they realized a certain compatibility, but which is essentially meaningless when reaching a spiritual awakening since the need to be together would lose its importance

another false info is the 'first father' (48'), as there is no such thing - if anything could be called 'first' its obviously the 'mother' that gives birth, also the tree of life is a symbol, not an actual tree (though certain types of trees have been associated with it), so it couldn't be the first thing to come out of the 'father's' stomach, which is a laughable statement as well, but not a coincidental one, it stems from former (but also current) patriarchate, where male power is worshiped as superior to/over the female one, thus resulting in such fallacies as the aforementioned ones, not to mention another one: 'death as an act of creation' whereas it is obvious that inception/'birth' is the act of creation, death is an act of transition

notice that the main character was ascending the stairs (related to the pyramid/ladder symbols, representing the path to 'enlightenment') towards an illuminated area, but didn't enter it, whereas when the female character did enter it, she was spiritually awakened (top of the pyramid/stairs/ladder) and 'her soul' abandoned her body, leaving the body as an 'empty shell', though they masked it with a temporary unconsciousness related to her sickness/tumor

the movie does have a nice visual style, especially in the transitional sequences, but for all its pretentiousness it won't attempt any relevant explanations, the ones that do surface are full of disinformation/misinformation as noted above