Tree of Life

Theatrical Release Date: 2011 05 27 (USA)

UPC: 024543749349

Studio: 20th Century Fox

MPAA Rating: PG13   Contains:[Violence]

Summary: The eldest son of a 1950s-era Midwestern family sets out on an existential journey that leads him to question his faith while seeking the answers to life's most challenging mysteries in this evocative drama from celebrated director Terrence Malick. Meanwhile, as Jack's (Sean Penn) innocence slowly erodes, his turbulent relationship with his father (Brad Pitt) becomes the specter that hangs over his every thought and action. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Category: Drama

Awards: Film Presented – Cannes Film Festival Best Actor – New York Film Critics Circle Palme d'Or – Cannes Film Festival Best Supporting Actress – New York Film Critics Circle Best Cinematography – New York Film Critics Circle Best Picture – National Board of Review Best Cinematography – New York Film Critics Online Top Ten Film of the Year – New York Film Critics Online Best Director – L.A. Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – L.A. Film Critics Association Best Picture – Detroit Film Critics Society Best Picture (Runner-up) – L.A. Film Critics Association Breakthrough Performance – Detroit Film Critics Society Breakthrough Performer – New York Film Critics Online Best Picture – San Francisco Film Critics Circle Best Cinematography – San Francisco Film Critics Circle Best Cinematography – L.A. Film Critics Association Best Director – Detroit Film Critics Society Best Cinematography – Boston Society of Film Critics Best Director – San Francisco Film Critics Circle Best Picture – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Cinematography – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Art Direction – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Art Direction – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Visual Effects – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Sound – Broadcast Film Critics Association Best Supporting Actress – National Society of Film Critics Best Director – National Society of Film Critics Best Cinematography – National Society of Film Critics Best Picture – National Society of Film Critics Best Actor – National Society of Film Critics Best Cinematography – American Society of Cinematographers Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Cinematography – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Features: cc

Tree of Life

Format: Blu-ray

Release Date: 10/11/2011

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 Theatre Wide-Screen

Audio: DHMA null, DD2 Dolby Digital Stereo, DD5.1 Dolby Digital 5.1

Runtime: 139 Minutes

Sides: 2

Number of Discs: 2

Language(s) English

Subtitles: English,Spanish

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Disc #1 -- Tree of Life
1. The Two Ways [4:10]
2. Grief [7:02]
3. The City [8:26]
4. Creation [17:17]
5. Innocence [11:39]
6. Jack is now 12 [6:47]
7. Mother [3:23]
8. Father [10:37]
9. School [1:24]
10. Drowning [4:56]
11. Weeds [4:00]
12. "Be Quiet" [5:09]
13. Dad's Away [1:31]
14. Robert [3:59]
15. Mrs. Kimball [6:43]
16. "I Trust You" [2:28]
17. I Do What I Hate [1:52]
18. Father Returns [5:32]
19. BB Gun [6:49]
20. "They're Closing the Plant" [4:14]
21. Moving Away [2:31]
22. Eternity [11:04]
23. Was it a Dream? [1:14]
24. End Titles [5:49]

Nathan Southern

One of the great human enigmas is the chasm between what many of us experience as "spiritual" from day to day, and the cold, hard realities of science -- a rift magnified ad infinitum for those acquainted with religious experience and teaching. Imagine feeling the intimacy of prayer or worship, or sensing a palpable emotional connection to another human being, but then, just as suddenly, being hit with the apparent meaninglessness of this on a cosmic level -- the fact that the Earth hangs in an endless void, ensconced by innumerable galaxies and subject to bewildering, apocalyptic forces. Or the concept that billions of years of evolution have brought humankind to its present state. Henry Jaglom puts it well in his opus Venice/Venice -- a reflection that he has since termed "the atheist's manifesto": the idea that whatever order we perceive in the world, or whatever significance we might find in human relationships, "is completely an illusion -- in reality, we know it's totally chaos." Unlike Venice/Venice, Terrence Malick's avant-garde drama The Tree of Life doesn't negate theism per se -- indeed, by opening with a passage from the Book of Job, which quotes God ("Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth...when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"), Malick vaguely affirms the possibility of a higher power behind the galactic quilt. But like Stanley Kubrick (to whose 2001 this film withstands comparison), Malick does perceive the concept of a creator as basically incomprehensible to human minds -- a faceless, impersonal force behind the void. As an extension of this paradigm, the writer-director spends most of his time and energy contemplating the differential between icy cosmic ontology and the warmth of personal interaction. To establish this contrast, the film initially hits us with a psychedelic compendium of time, space, and the universe -- from the creation of the Earth to the evolution of life from a cellular level onward to the meteor that briefly annihilated all Paleolithic life. Malick poetically crisscrosses all of this with the deeply subjective experiences of one Texan man, Jack O'Brien (played as a boy by Hunter McCracken and as an adult by Sean Penn). In the process, the filmmaker achieves real profundity -- sustained and courageous pontifications on the nature and meaning (or lack thereof) of human existence. The juxtaposition of the cosmic and the personal spheres also sets up an effective tonal contrast -- whereas the space sequences give us nothing to hang onto emotionally, Malick films many of Jack's experiences in soft focus, with first-person camera and tight close-ups, and gently cascading music on the soundtrack. To call these onscreen events -- conception, birth, napping in a mother's lap, first steps, etc. -- "moving" would be a colossal understatement. They are also somewhat sad, as our memories of the cosmic prologue continually drive home indications of the transience and long-term ineffectuality of these lives. Whenever these devout characters speak to God (which happens on several occasions), a vein of nagging irony emerges, as an affirmation of the characters' own inconsequentiality in the scheme of things, and man's self-deluded need to believe that his problems and concerns are central to whatever force brought him here. Malick implies, for example, that Mrs. O'Brien's (Jessica Chastain) mourning of the death of one of her sons may not matter one iota on a cosmic scale, though it seems earth-shaking to the woman experiencing it. That same poignancy colors virtually all of the events that take place in the middle passages of the film, as Malick begins to strategically pull us into the emotional core of the lives on display. We get protracted glimpses of the dynamics of the O'Brien family during the 1950s and '60s, as preadolescent Jack grapples with his conflicted feelings toward his disciplinarian father (Brad Pitt) -- an unsuccessful pianist and inventor-turned-engineer with a slightly stilted ability to give affection to his three sons. Despite the gossamery, episodic narrative, these passages are far more conventional than the metaphysical material that preceded them; they also represent some of the finest work that Malick has ever done. There is real magic in the delicacy of his observations about family behavior and interactions with one another, a dysfunctional father's psychological and emotional impact on his sons, and the main character's need to work through unresolved filial emotions, as young Jack wrestles with resentment toward his dad. For instance, Malick only needs to show us Mr. O'Brien lying on his back beneath a jacked-up car and tinkering with it, and Jack eyeing the crank, to imply the boy's desire to kill his father -- it isn't necessary for the child to travel one step farther by lowering the vehicle. Malick also scatters stunning, pointed visual metaphors throughout the Texas sequences that expressionistically heighten our sense of what is occurring inside of Jack -- as with an allegorical glimpse of a giant (presumably meant to symbolize Pitt's character) who corners the youngster inside of an attic and forces him to ride around in circles on a bicycle. Up to a point, the movie's attempts to connect the metaphysical with the personal feel astonishing on all levels. If the film disappoints, it does so only in the final 20 minutes. One feels slightly short-changed by Malick's unwillingness to go into depth about how adult Jack ultimately manages to resolve his inner conflicts toward his family. In lieu of giving us concrete insights into this psycho-emotional process, the film attempts to bring Jack to a state of grace allegorically, with additional trippy visual metaphors (throngs of characters walking hand in hand on a deserted beach, the dilapidated remnants of a door, a closing image of a bridge) that seem far too abstruse and dissociated from the reality of the central character's life to really succeed. This is unfortunate, for it makes the epilogue feel as impenetrable as the preceding material was commendably ambitious and stunning to behold. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

Cast and Crew: Brad Pitt  Producer 
Sarah Green  Producer 
Terrence Malick  Director 
Terrence Malick  Screenwriter 
Donald Rosenfeld  Executive Producer 
Grant Hill  Producer 
Alexandre Desplat  Composer (Music Score) 
Bill Pohlad  Producer 
Dede Gardner  Producer 
Brad Pitt  Actor 
Sean Penn  Actor 
Jessica Chastain  Actor 
Hunter McCracken  Actor 
Laramie Eppler  Actor 
Tye Sheridan  Actor 
Fiona Shaw  Actor 
Jessica Fuselier  Actor 
Nicolas Gonda  Actor 
William Wallace  Actor 
Kelly Koonce  Actor 
Bryce Boudoin  Actor 
Jimmy Donaldson  Actor 
Kameron Vaughn  Actor 
Cole Cockburn  Actor 
Dustin Allen  Actor 
Brayden Whisenhunt  Actor 
Joanna Going  Actor 
Irene Bedard  Actor 
Finnegan Williams  Actor 
Michael Koeth  Actor 
John Howell  Actor 
Samantha Martinez  Actor 
Savannah Welch  Actor 
Tamara Jolaine  Actor 
Julia Smith  Actor 
Anne Nabors  Actor 
Christopher Ryan  Actor 
Tyler Thomas  Actor 
Michael Showers  Actor 
Kim Whalen  Actor 
Margaret Ann Hoard  Actor 
Wally Welch  Actor 
Hudson Long  Actor 
Michael Dixon  Actor 
William Hardy  Actor 
Tommy Hollis  Actor 
Cooper Franklin Sutherland  Actor 
John Cyrier  Actor 
Erma Lee Alexander  Actor 
Nicholas Yedinak  Actor 
Claire Oelkers  Actor 
Thomas Pavlechko  Actor 

Country: USA