I have been anticipating the release of The Tree of Life for some time. I heard that Kansas City Star Film Critic Robert Butler would be introducing the movie at its Kansas City Premiere at the Tivoli Theater, so I couldn’t pass that up. The Tree of Life is a film by Director Terence Malick. If you love intelligent movies, great cinematography, the mystery of life, theology and beauty, then you will be deeply moved by The Tree of Life.
Butler’s introduction was helpful to grasp more fully the context of this project by Malick. The movie is set in Waco, Texas where Malick grew up and is largely biographical. Malick’s interest in theology is evident throughout this movie. The dialogue between characters felt less like a script and more like a glimpse into real human conversation and human thought (via the narration). Malick begins with a poetic description of the interplay of nature vs. grace. In the movie he inserts a lengthy creation sequence. Although there was breathtaking beauty in this sequence there was also a sense of the awesomeness and powerful clash of nature’s forces. However, it wasn’t until (and I’m not messing with you) an encounter between two dinosaurs that I had my first breathtaking moment in this film. I actually spoke aloud (to the annoyance of my wife and daughter), “here comes the violence, nature on nature.” Instead, Malick surprises with an act of grace. OK, enough from me. See this movie. I’m looking forward to more of my friends seeing this movie so I can engage in dialogue and reflection.
Roy Anker, who attended this year’s Cannes Film Festival, weighed in on The Tree of Life for Books & Culture.
“The Tree of Life. This hotly awaited new film by American writer-director Terence Malick won the big prize at Cannes. It is a cinematic landmark that in style and substance goes where few films have. And it is a rapturous, profoundly Christian film in which Malick sets forth in clear form the vision that has informed the later part of his career (though lots of critics still don't get it). With an epigraph from Job, Malick offers a theodicy within a vision of cosmic history. Go at first chance, and then go again.”
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