The Tree of Life is a 2011 American epic experimental coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick. Its main cast includes Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Jessica Chastain, and Tye Sheridan in his debut feature film role. The film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the universe and the inception of life on Earth.
After more than five years in production, The Tree of Life premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it won the Palme d'Or. It received three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography. It was ranked number one on review aggregator Metacritic's "Film Critic Top Ten List of 2011", and made more critics' year-end lists for 2011 than any other film. It has since been ranked by numerous publications as one of the greatest films of the 2010s, of the 21st century, and of all time.
Plot Premise The film follows the members of the O'Brien family in the 1940s–1960s and 2010. Most of the film takes place in the 1950s, but the film jumps between different narratives. The O'Briens appear to be a standard American middle-class suburban family. Mr. O'Brien is a successful engineer for an energy company, but has enough free time to indulge his love of music. Mrs. O'Brien is a housewife with many friends in the neighborhood. They have three healthy boys, Jack, R.L., and Stevie. However, the film reveals deep cracks behind the facade, which leave Jack traumatized for decades.
Theatrical edition
In the 1960s, Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien are devastated to learn that their son R.L., aged 19, has died. In 2010, Jack is a successful but world-weary architect in an unnamed city. He leads a seemingly empty existence and has a difficult relationship with his elderly father, who still has not gotten over R.L.'s death. In voiceover, Mrs. O'Brien asks God why R.L. had to die. Then a series of dreamlike images depict the birth of the universe, the creation of Earth and the beginning of life. At one point a dinosaur spares another, badly wounded, dinosaur. Finally, an asteroid strikes Earth.
In the 1940s, Mr. and Mrs. O'Brien start a family in the Waco suburbs. They have very different personalities. Jack's mother teaches him that mankind is divided into the "way of nature" and the "way of grace"—a view analogous to, but not precisely, complementarianism. Jack sees his mother as the embodiment of grace: kind, forgiving, and nurturing. She presents the world to her sons as a place of wonder. Jack sees his father as the embodiment of nature: hot-tempered, tough, and stern. He teaches his sons to fight and to not trust people easily.
As Jack grows older, he learns that his parents are frustrated with their lives. Mr. O'Brien finds his career unfulfilling, as his true passion is music. He spends his free time inventing gadgets and hopes to start his own business. One of the inventions looks promising, but after Mr. O'Brien loses a patent suit, nothing changes. Mrs. O'Brien lives under the thumb of her domineering husband, who screams at her and blames her for not disciplining the boys enough. He worries that her kindness, which contrasts with his discipline, has caused his sons to hate him.
As a teenager, Jack begins to question his parents' philosophy of life. The death of his friend Taylor shakes his faith in the goodness of God. He resents his father, who harshly disciplines him but cuts R.L. slack because of their shared love of music. He criticizes his mother for failing to stand up to his father. When Mr. O'Brien goes on a business trip, a weight is lifted from the family's shoulders. The boys happily play with their mother. However, without his father's discipline, Jack's rebellious streak emerges. Peer-pressured, Jack commits vandalism and animal abuse, and steals a nightgown from his crush's house.
Mr. O'Brien's plant shuts down, forcing the family to relocate. Before leaving the house for the last time, Mr. O'Brien has a moment of self-reflection. He asks Jack to forgive him for his harshness, and tries to conciliate Jack by telling him that he takes after his mother. However, Jack insists that he better resembles his father.
Returning to 2010, Jack has a vision of a young girl, accompanied by himself as a child, walking across desolate terrain. He walks through a wooden door frame and sees a view of the far distant future in which the Sun expands into a red giant, engulfing Earth and then shrinking into a white dwarf. The dead return to life and gather at the seaside, where Jack is reunited with his family and all those who populate his memory. Jack meets his brothers and brings R.L. to his parents, who embrace him as a long-lost son. Accompanied by two girls in white, Mrs. O'Brien gracefully whispers, "I give him to you. I give you my son."
Jack's vision ends and he leaves his office, smiling contentedly. The mysterious light continues flickering in the darkness.
Extended edition Malick released an extended version of the film in September 2018, which incorporates unused footage from the original film shoot. Although Malick maintains that the theatrical edition is the official director's cut, the extended version expands on the character of Mr. O'Brien and broadly questions Mrs. O'Brien's either-or distinction between nature and grace.
Additional plot elements include:
In the present day, the film fills in details of Jack's life as he wanders around Dallas. Although he cheats on his wife, he tries to look after his teenage son. Mrs. O'Brien once aspired to be a scientist, but gave it up to be a housewife. Mr. O'Brien is haunted by his memories of his own father, a Navy veteran who was unsuccessful in civilian life. Terrified of ending up like his father, he pushes himself to make it big in business. Mr. O'Brien spends more time playing with his sons and teaching them to love music like he does. Mrs. O'Brien's brother Ray visits the family. Although Ray, like Mr. O'Brien, has a masculine demeanor, he does not fit into the "way of nature" paradigm, and harshly criticizes Mr. O'Brien for mistreating his nephews. Mr. O'Brien is jealous of how much his sons like Ray, and criticizes Ray for his unsuccessful career. Jack visits a friend's house and sees that the O'Briens are not the only family in Waco with domestic tensions. Jack's increasing rebelliousness leads him to become an inattentive student. As Jack declines academically, Mr. O'Brien realizes his own deficiencies as a father. To give Jack another chance in a better environment, he sends Jack to boarding school. One of the final scenes shows Jack exploring the campus of Malick's alma mater, St. Stephen's Episcopal School in Austin.
Cast
Brad Pitt as Mr. O'Brien Jessica Chastain as Mrs. O'Brien Sean Penn as Jack O'Brien Hunter McCracken as young Jack Finnegan Williams as Jack (age 5) Michael Koeth as Jack (age 2) Laramie Eppler as R.L. O'Brien John Howell as R.L. (age 2) Tye Sheridan as Steve O'Brien Kari Matchett as Jack's ex Joanna Going as Jack's wife Michael Showers as Mr. Brown Kimberly Whalen as Mrs. Brown Jackson Hurst as Uncle Ray Fiona Shaw as Grandmother Crystal Mantecón as Elisa Tamara Jolaine as Mrs. Stone Dustin Allen as George Walsh Tommy Hollis as Tommy
Production Development Following the critical success of Days of Heaven (1978), Terrence Malick was offered $1 million for his next project, Q. Malick's idea for Q was "a history of the cosmos up through the formation of the Earth and the beginnings of life." Although several ideas from Q formed the core of The Tree of Life, several other Q ideas were scrapped, such as a section set in the Middle East during World War I, and an underwater minotaur dreaming about the evolution of the universe. Although Malick and his crew scouted locations and filmed certain nature shots for the film, he did not set a formal schedule or write a script. Reportedly, he was unsure whether the film should focus on humanity, nature, or both; at one point, the creative team considered introducing humans only at the end of the film. One day, Malick "just stopped" working on the film.
Decades later, Malick pitched the concept of The Tree of Life to River Road Entertainment head Bill Pohlad while the two were collaborating on an early version of Che. Pohlad recalled initially thinking the idea was "crazy", but as the film concept evolved, he came to feel strongly about the idea; he ended up financing the film. Producer Grant Hill was also involved with the film at an early stage. During a meeting on a different subject involving Malick, his producer Sarah Green, Brad Pitt, and Pitt's Plan B Entertainment production partner Dede Gardner, Malick brought up Tree of Life and the difficulties it was having getting made. It was "much later on" that the decision was made for Pitt to be part of the cast.
The Tree of Life was announced in late 2005, with Indian production company Percept Picture Company set to finance it and Donald Rosenfeld on board as executive producer. The film was set to be shot partially in India, with pre-production scheduled to begin in January 2006. Colin Farrell and Mel Gibson were at one stage attached to the project. Heath Ledger was set to play the role of Mr. O'Brien, but dropped out (due to recurring sicknesses) a month before his death in early 2008.
For the roles of the three brothers, the production team spent over a year, seeing over 10,000 Texas students for the roles. About 95% of the entire cast had no prior acting experience.
In an October 2008 interview, Jack Fisk, a longtime Malick collaborator, suggested that the director was attempting something radical. He also implied that details of the film were a close secret. In March 2009, visual effects artist Mike Fink revealed to Empire magazine that he was working on scenes of prehistoric Earth for the film. The similarity of the scenes Fink describes to descriptions of a hugely ambiguous project entitled Q that Malick worked on soon after Days of Heaven led to speculation that The Tree of Life was a resurrection of that abandoned project.Terrence Malick's THE TREE OF LIFE To Go IMAX? With Dinosaurs? , aintitcool.com, March 2, 2009
Filming Principal photography began in Texas in 2008. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki returned to work with Malick after collaborating with him on The New World. The film was shot in 1.85:1 and often used natural light. The film used 35mm, 65mm, and IMAX formats. Locations included Smithville, Houston, Matagorda, Bastrop, Austin, Dallas, and Malick's hometown of Waco.
The eponym of the film is a large live oak tree that was excavated from a property five miles outside Smithville. The 65,000-pound tree and root ball were trucked into Smithville and replanted.Hagerty, Terry. "Oak in 'Tree of Life' moved to downtown Smithville". The Bastrop Advertiser, February 9, 2008, pp 1A, 2A.
The sets for The Tree of Life were unusual for a large scale film. According to Brad Pitt, "A movie set is very chaotic. There [are] hundreds of people; there [are] generators and trucks. And this was a completely different experience — we had none of that." "There were no [camera] lights ... there were no generators and the camera was all hand-held so it was a very free-form, low-key experience." Adding to the improvisational aspect, Malick would change different aspects of a scene between takes in order to create "moments of truth".