Brad Pitt Climbs Tree of Life

[Pink Ranger]

I don't get the hype around this movie . It was boring and Weird . It had to many WTF moments for me

Definitely a jarring and polarizing movie. I saw it in June, and to this day I still can't say whether I "liked" it or not.

 

[kvz5]

Yeah... Most Malick films are polarizing. Some will absolutely LOVE it and some will absolutely HATE it.

 

[chesslover]

The tree is definitely getting an oscar nom.

 

[RKO]

I watched this a couple days ago. It really is a polarizing film. But we need this type of artistic, thinking man films to contrast the bunch of crap that is released in cinema lately.

I enjoyed it, very emotional, intriguing and thought provoking, with a great cast and acting to back it up.

 

[kvz5]

A good insight into how Malick works from his production designer:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/thompsononhollywood/jack-fisk-climbs-the-tree-of-life

A couple of years later, Malick asked Fisk to accompany him on a scouting trip to check out some small towns around Austin. Joined by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, they soaked up the region on and off for the next three years. But this wasn't Guadalcanal ("The Thin Red Line") or the Chickahominy River ("The New World"); this was Malick country, where he grew up, so it was a challenge finding a place that he had never seen or heard of. Still, Fisk managed to find just the timeless town they were searching for: Smithville, 40 miles outside of Austin.

"It was a great little town," Fisk adds. "There weren't as many houses in a block that you find today and, with taking out some fencing, we could really open up one yard to the next and make it feel like I remember places back in the early '50s in Illinois. And Terry and I had similar childhoods so we were working from the same reference point. It was easy because I knew exactly what he wanted to achieve: a small town with 500 people."

Most important, it helped evoke childhood memories of playing outside at dusk and between yards and seeing lives through windows, as Fisk suggests. "My wife [Sissy Spacek, who starred in 'Badlands'] is from Texas and she told me so much about her childhood that it also became part of my research. It went into the big stewpot. Like Terry, she also had been chasing DDT trucks in the '50s. She knew all her neighbors and the local phone operator. And like Terry she also lost her brother when he was a teenager and it just tugged at her emotionally. I was more fortunate: I lost my father at an early age but didn't lose any brothers or sisters, so I saw it differently as I immersed myself in the period."

So Fisk and the art department covered up the metal buildings with wood and painted harsher colors; took out modern play sets; removed trees that didn't belong and brought in others; planted gardens; and hid modern windows with chicken coops and anything else they could find.

"This gave Terry a playground of about five square blocks where he could pick up a camera and just walk down the street and shoot," Fisk continues. "There wasn't anything glaringly wrong for 1957. Terry doesn't use storyboards and he doesn't even plan shots that far ahead. He's always looking for spontaneity. He loves to be surprised; he says he likes to approach it like a documentary. He delights in not being locked into a plan and is always trying to find something fresh and real in the environment. He'll throw a little chaos into a scene just to get a reaction that nobody planned. He'll put a kid into a scene or a dog."

And with a rich ensemble cast (including New York Film Critics Circle winners Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as well as Sean Penn and newcomer Hunter McCracken), Malick had plenty to play with. Indeed, the philosophically-minded director writes scenes that can be shot anywhere: a moment crafted for a living room could just as easily be shot in front of a restaurant downtown or in a field out in the country, according to Fisk. "We all know things are going to change, which is why I try to be on set all the time," the production designer says. "I remember talking to a set decorator [Jeanette Scott] and discussing that Terry wanted a location on the Colorado River that he hadn't seen yet. She wanted to know when he wanted to see it and I told her not until after lunch. 'Oh, no problem,' she said. We had gotten so used to moving so quickly that three or four hours seemed like a luxury."

In contrast to the soft and colorful childhood memories, the modern section set in Houston featuring Penn is architecturally cold and claustrophobic with glass and stone. "There were trees in their yard that the kids would climb on, but in Houston there were trees inside the glass lobbies of buildings so the contrast was not only remarkable but wonderful for the story," Fisk offers. "We've worked since the first days of 'Badlands' with minimal augmentation of the locations or sets, because we found it was so powerful to just choose a few things to represent the place we were telling about. "

 

[ALP]

I've never seen a Malick film before. I imagine this will be my first.

 

[Rocketman]

Just saw this tonight on stunning Blu-Ray.

Spoiler

WHOA.

 

[kvz5]

All the awards!

 

[RKO]

Genius. one of my favorite things about the film.

 

[Sgt.Pepper]

To me, there will be no greater Oscar sin (well, at least for this year's ceremony) if Chivo doesn't win for his absolutely brilliant work on The Tree of Life.

 

[CapedCrusader14]

I still can't decide whether I liked this or not. There was some fantastic stuff in this film, but it also felt like it was lacking something.

 

[RKO]

I still can't decide whether I liked this or not. There was some fantastic stuff in this film, but it also felt like it was lacking something.

A cohesive narrative?

 

[cabel]

A year ago this was the movie I was looking forward to the most. When I finally got to see it, it was unfortunatley an overall disappointment.

It goes without saying that the cinematography is stunning. The performances are strong, and the best part of the film is were Malick essentially remakes the Rite of Spring segment from Fantasia.

However, the biggest problem I had with the story was this. The movie is about Jack's youth, his loss of innocence, his relationships with his parents, and his emotions from that time of his life. But early on, the movie introduces the fact that one of Jack's brothers dies at some point.

Now usually I don't mind long, slow paced movies. But in this case, I was distracted because I was waiting to see how the brother dying was going to tie into the main narrative of Jack's youth. But it doesn't. You don't get to know either of the brothers at all. So much so that you can't even tell them apart from any other kids that they interact with.

So a minor character that we don't really know, dies offscreen years after the events that we are shown. And apparently I'm supposed to care, just because.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

Just watched this - holy ****. That was amazing. I don't even know what to say.

 

[Rez]

Any word on the planned IMAX film that would just be creation & life footage? Haven't heard anything in a long time.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

What's that? Link?

 

[SlamAdams]

A year ago this was the movie I was looking forward to the most. When I finally got to see it, it was unfortunatley an overall disappointment.

It goes without saying that the cinematography is stunning. The performances are strong, and the best part of the film is were Malick essentially remakes the Rite of Spring segment from Fantasia.

However, the biggest problem I had with the story was this. The movie is about Jack's youth, his loss of innocence, his relationships with his parents, and his emotions from that time of his life. But early on, the movie introduces the fact that one of Jack's brothers dies at some point.

Now usually I don't mind long, slow paced movies. But in this case, I was distracted because I was waiting to see how the brother dying was going to tie into the main narrative of Jack's youth. But it doesn't. You don't get to know either of the brothers at all. So much so that you can't even tell them apart from any other kids that they interact with.

So a minor character that we don't really know, dies offscreen years after the events that we are shown. And apparently I'm supposed to care, just because.

It was more of a catalyst for an adult Jack to look back over his life and his place in the universe, which also kind of explains why the movie seems kind of dream-like since it is a much older Jack trying to remember his old hazy memories.

 

[Marvolo]

Criterion releasing Tree of Life in August. Will include theatrical version and a brand new extended cut with 50 minutes of added scenes.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION:

New 4K digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Terrence Malick and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki

5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray

New extended version of the film featuring an additional fifty minutes of footage

Exploring “The Tree of Life,” a 2011 documentary featuring collaborators and admirers of Malick’s, including filmmakers David Fincher and Christopher Nolan

New interviews with actor Jessica Chastain and visual-effects supervisor Dan Glass

Interview from 2011 with composer Alexandre Desplat about the film

New interview with music critic Alex Ross about Malick’s approach to music

Video essay from 2011 by critic Matt Zoller Seitz

Trailer

More!

PLUS: An essay by critic Kent Jones and a 2011 piece on the film by critic Roger Ebert


http://www.blu-ray.com/news/?id=23326

Terrence Malick’s ‘Tree of Life’ Gets Longer Criterion Version

Terrence Malick has secretly been working on an extended version of “The Tree of Life,” which will be included by the Criterion Collection as a supplement to an enhanced special-edition Blu-ray and DVD release later this year.

The film, which won the Palme d’Or at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, has grown 50 minutes of new branches — although roots might be a better metaphor, since the additional material focuses primarily on the lives of the O’Brien family (characters played by Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain) and the backstory of Jack (Sean Penn), whose search for meaning in the wake of his brother’s death drives a transcendental quest unlike any previously depicted on film.

“Terry doesn’t see this as a director’s cut,” says Criterion president Peter Becker, who insists that the 139-minute theatrical version is the official “director’s cut” and remains the centerpiece of the Blu-Ray edition. “It’s a fresh view of the film that has a different rhythm and a different balance.

....

As cinephiles’ imaginations race, it’s important to note: The expanded 188-minute cut doesn’t contain more effects shots, and the epic creation sequence remains untouched. But it restores material that Malick was exploring for the version that was shown in Cannes, including specific events and characters that were referenced only elliptically in the original film. Audiences will get specific insights into Mr. O’Brien’s painful upbringing, meet members of Mrs. O’Brien’s extended family, and witness a major natural catastrophe that serves as a kind of centerpiece for what Becker has been calling “the new version.”

At this stage, no theatrical release is planned. Criterion holds only home-video rights, “but Fox has been very supportive,” Becker says, “and we’ll see what the audiences demand.”


http://variety.com/2018/film/news/terrence-malick-tree-of-life-longer-criterion-version-1202807034/

 

[Babillygunn]

Words don’t describe how much I love this movie. An exploration of human nature, rooted in selfish ambition versus love and grace, which seeks the good of others.