the tree of life

Chris Knight's avatar

Ever since I first saw this movie in February, it has lingered on the edges of my consciousness like no film before has.

And of all the wonder that is to be found in Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, this is the scene that has most entranced and enchanted me.

As I wrote after watching it then, this is a movie that dares to ask God “Why?”, before providing the same reply that God gave to Job.

Now that the thought occurs to me, I might even suggest watching The Tree of Life after studying the Book of Job from the Old Testament. Yeah: read everything from the beginning, on through Job losing all but his life and then to the monologues by his friends (some help they were!) and exactly before hitting the point where God comes in to answer Job, go to this scene in ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

During this past weekend in Norfolk a friend showed us some movies that I haven’t seen yet. Drive is excellent! David Cronenberg’s 1983 horror entry Videodrome… hmmmm, interesting. Saw some foreshadowing of our Internet culture there. And for my own part I brought along Hobo With A Shotgun.

It’s The Tree of Life that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about for the past 48 hours.

It’s up for Best Picture during the Oscars this coming Sunday night (along with The Artist – a movie I’ve seen twice in theaters, this is the second Best Picture nominee this year that I’ve caught). And I can understand why. It’s jaw-droppingly beautiful to oggle and admire. Writer/director Terrence Malick was able to woo Douglas Trumbull himself to come out of retirement to do the visuals for The Tree of Life. Trumbull was the genius who pulled off those ...

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