On Terrence Malick's Tree of Life by JC Alfajora

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On Terrence Malick’s Tree of Life (2011)

By John Christen M. Alfajora

UPLB

Introduction

Poetic and philosophical, Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life guarantees that any attempt

to characterize it, or describe it at the least, could be left as a chimera. The sensorial distinctions

of the film are not meant to be interpreted, but are left to impress. It has different levels of

meanings. It attempted to metaphorically deal with spiritual, philosophical themes. Tree of Life

answers some of the most difficult questions ever fathomed by mankind. Particularly, it situated

the nonchalant life of an ordinary American family in sequences of cosmology, biology, and

utterances insinuating religiosity. In this essay, I intend to evaluate the Tree of Life through the

lens of Leonard Shlain’s contentions on reality, time, and space in his book ‘Art and Physics’

(1993).

The Tree of Life opens with an epigraph lifted from the Bible in which God humbled

character Job by showing him his ignorance on the palpable perfectness of his creation. ‘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’ (Job 38:4, 7). In Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible (1748), he

noted that this particular passage indicates that man (as represented by Job) is at the state of

“nothingness, of mere nonentity” when God laid the scaffoldings of the universe.

The 38th Chapter of Job is a challenge more than a response to Job’s inquiry concerning

the earth and the fabric of it (Job 38:1). In this passage, God declared that although Job had an

understanding of entities that exist in nature and in spiritual realm, he had no understanding of

what he questioned about, of where he stood and where he was when earth was founded. The

passage presents a dialogue between God and the inquisitive Job who, after series of misfortunes,


threw questions to God concerning the world (verse 1); the sea which is compared to the

embryonic infant (verse 8); the lightness and darkness of the world (verse 16); the influence of the

lightning and stars (verse 22), among others. To understand the instigators of things, man should

be present at their origin, God argues. It is contestable then that a finite creature like Job cannot

fathom the infinite creation of God.

It will later be revealed that Job’s calamity is the same calamity that the O’Brien’s

experienced upon the death of Jack’s brother. In a sermon, pertaining to Job, the minister of their

unnamed town notes that ‘misfortune befalls the good as well… we can’t protect ourselves against

it, like [an innocent] tree [is] rooted up.’

This tussling between the force of nature and futile efforts of man is best reflected in

Shager’s (2013) observation of the staple characteristics of Terrence Malick’s oeuvre. He writes:

“reflective voice-over from multiple characters that is often at odds

with the visuals; rapturous magic-hour landscape shots; cutaways

from the action proper to images of trees, sky, insects, water;

swelling orchestral-and-organ music of Wagnerian import; and

contrasts between the majesty of nature and the shortcomings of

man.

Taking that in consideration, the film’s plot is indeed unrewarding. To be blunt, it’s ambiguous.

The sudden shifting from different time frames may beguiled, if not entirely fascinates, the

viewers. The film is a metaphysical exploration on the position of mankind in the grand schemes

of configuration. It contrived how a recurring childhood memory could stand in perfect harmony

with the musing of Earth’s creation.

Although at one point, I suppose that a more conventional storytelling could help the film

delivers its complicated story. The first half of the movie features seemingly unconnected scenes

that are occasionally peppered by unsolicited voice-overs. The sequence showing the creation of


the earth and formation of land forms and life steered the formation of a dreary family in a boring,

tree-filled town.

Viewers either worship or abhor Tree of Life. Usually, film narratives follow a singular,

coherent flow of information and viewers find it easy to link a scene with the scene before it.

However, with Tree of Life’s attempt to aggregate montage of lyrical images, this task became a

challenge. Rudely, viewers were treated to scenes that have no immediate connection with the

struggles of the character. Yet, viewers were framed to search for meanings and associations

among these scenes.

Nature and Grace

The film then initiates the viewers into a flickering light, resembling a flame. Then we were

transported to the time when Mr. and Mrs. O’Brien had Jack. The rendering of the birth process is

particularly interesting as it portrayed a child swimming through a steeped house. The portrayal of

the birth of the universe and the birth of a man seemed entirely unrelated at first, but it is evocative.

As their family grew bigger, Mr. Obrien’s planting of a tree in the family’s backyard is a vital

establishing element of the film.

The striking contrast between the mother and the father – the ways of grace and nature – is

portrayed at the initial sequences of the film. As Mrs. O’Brien said, ‘a man's heart has heard two

ways through life. The way of nature. And the way of grace.You have to choose which one you'll

follow.’


The wrestling of the Mother and the Father, and the values they embody, is strikingly

palpable in the film. Yet, Tree of Life does not intend to persuade anyone.

The father constitutes nature. He is a typical American daddy who would say, ‘If you want

to succeed, you can’t be too good’. He works in a factory, plays the piano at home and church. He

commands respect and turns eccentric when aggravated. He dislikes his neighbors and he often

badmouths them. Jack and his brothers developed a slight ambivalence to the father due to his

autocracy. With his disciplinarian attitude, Mr. Obrien was portrayed with intense personality. At

one scene, he even provokes his children to hit him in the jaw.

Mrs. O’Brien, on the other hand, personified grace. Her love is unconditional. She is

passive, but not constricting. She embodies the purity and sanctity of religiosity. In the initial

sequence, she’s portrayed to have gave birth to her son in white clothes, an allegory to the Virgin

Mary of Christianity. Her voice-overs towards the end of the film similarly confirmed this

assumption. In the open air, the sacred Mrs. O’ Brien, in her submission, said, ‘I give him to you,

I give you my son.’ When their father have gone to a trip, they had a sense of liberation with their

mother. They could slam the door and run through the house. Jack even developed an oedipal

complex towards his mother.


Such upbringing has left a huge mark in Jack’s psychological consciousness. He

experienced chronic conflicts between the graciousness of his mother and the ruthlessness of his

father’s nature. There came a point when Jack’s anger towards his father reaches a point when he

wishes him to just die. When his friend died, he turned to God. But at one point, he attributed the

misfortune to his father.

Apparently, there is a juxtaposition between the father of Jack and God the Father. He is

blamed: ‘Why has he hurt us? Our Father?’ He solicits worship: ‘Give your father a kiss.’ He woos

unqualified trust: “Without having to ask what it is? Just have the confidence in what your father

asks you is right?’ He exalts himself: ‘I wanted to be loved because I was great’

For Shlain (1993), such overriding appositions of nature and grace corroborates the two

perspectives on the ‘investigation of reality' (16). In his terms, nature and grace is best embodied

in science and art, respectively. Arts and science have a very specific lexicon. They both have their

unique lexicography, which in turn estrange them from the reality they wish to represent and to

each other as well. Yet, Tree of Life complicates these mutually exclusive constructs as it renders

art and science in the film as a spring of transcendental values. The spiritual and religious themes

have been depicted in the film in various ways.


The film even lifted Biblical verses and integrate them into the common utterances of the

characters. This is especially true with Mrs. O’Brien’s lamentation over the death of her son. She

uttered words such as: “I shall fear no evil” (Psalm 23:4); “Be not far from me, for trouble is near”

(Psalm 22:11); and, “The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away” (Job 1:21). Interestingly, Mrs.

O’Brien asked out of despair: “Where were you?” Presumably, that question is directed to God.

Yet in the opening epigraph, it was God who is asking the same question to Job.

The contradiction between religiosity and nature is also apparent with little Jack’s sudden

gush of sexual urge when he rallied through the lingerie of their neighbor. When Jack felt sexual

urge over a neighbor’s lingerie that he has stolen, he felt a sudden guilt and so he threw it on the

river.

Malick’s striking cinematography seemed to corroborate the film’s commentary on

religiosity and the existence of divine providence. In most of the scenery sequences, Mallick used

extremely wide shot taken from below which seemed to suggest the existence of a higher being.

The film was obviously devoid of theological conventions despite it being spiritual, but it

was obviously driven by a philosophical speculation. The plot of the film foreshadows the

philosophical questions it wishes to forward: the contention between the ways of grace and of

nature.


Experience and Images

Tree of Life accompanies the viewers to Jack’s journey into his thoughts, memories. As he

retreats through the past, the film’s wide lenses attempted to create scenes that capture the nostalgia

of childhood and the striking pleasure in the voyeur of nature. This echoes Shlain’s presumption

that thinking about understanding reality begins with the assimilation of unfamiliar images (1993,

p. 17). Image, after all, is better than other senses; hence, man inherently begins with pictures in

constructing and re-constructing his experiences (Shlain, 1993).

Hence, the movie sets off with seemingly unrelated images that launches an inquiry more

than a spectacle. Ironically, Jack is a cartographer of images. It can be inferred that Jack is working

in an architectural firm as reflected in some sequences where he was portrayed working with

schematic designs.

At one point, the random death of his brother is irrelevant and utterly trivial and is not

enough to be a catalyst for epistemological discourses on time and space. Yet it appears later that

the stochasticity of the death of a person is a ferocious blemish in itself.

But Tree of Life is not a movie about grief, albeit it tackles how one bereaves and how man

could still be revisited by the horrors of the tragedy of yesterday. It shows the transiency of life

and our immaturity towards life and death. There are a lot of people who died without a reason.


They were innocent people and the laments of the voice-overs seemed to invite the viewers to

question with them what do these people have done in order for them to deserve such demeanor.

Malick explored in this film the interrelationship between the most infinitesimal elements

in the universe to the most colossal creations, from the most trifling to the most momentous events

of the cosmos. The tenet that small things evolve into larger ones is very prominent in the film.

The death of Jack’s brother remained bothering him for years in the very same way that a single

light paved the way to the formation of universe.

Memory played a huge part of the narrative. At Jack’s present times, he is continually

reminded by stimulus that transported him back to his memory. Jack lit a candle and it triggered a

memory in him and he was transported to his childhood reminiscences. As he stared at a tree being

planted in the center of skyscrapers where he worked, he remembered the tree that was planted by

his father. Memory of his childhood neighborhood came gushing in.

Despite the film’s frequent reference to cosmic origin, it did not attempt to validate nor

discuss which views of creation is the most logical way to follow. As it traced the creation, the

manifestation of Grace is found as Mrs. O’Brien enquires into the death of her son. It is in the

creation that we found grace and it is in creation that we see death. That tiny light has to be created

to make it explode so that that the universe will be created. Dinosaurs should be made extinct

through an asteroid hit so that human forms will form from the microscopic creature. Jack’s brother

has to die, so he would have life.

Subjective Reality

With Malick’s inherent taste for artistic rendition of filmic elements, Tree of Life has a

substantial fascination for shadows. In many sequences, Malick portrayed action and inaction


through shadows creeping through the ground. While no accurate inference could be deduced

therein, the inclusion of shadow as a vital element of the film’s mise-en-scene stood in harmony

with its portrayal of a subjective reality. It reflects how a certain image could be interpreted in a

variety of ways, how an outline of a shadow can mean a complex image.

Many instances in the film reflect its contention of a subjective reality. Jack reduces the

details of his external world and translate it piece by piece to his inner consciousness.

Concurrently, he was able to fashion his own world which fundamentally exists within the bounds

of his thoughts. This is of course reminiscent of Arthur Schopenhauer’s famous adage: the world

is my idea (Shlain, 1993).

One of the predominant themes in the film is the apparent deconstruction of what is real

and unreal. The depiction of natural phenomena where portrayed in sharp contrast with the remorse

and struggle of Jack as he traverses back his memory. Say, Jack’s reminiscing of his brother is no

longer a reality, but a memory. ‘How did I lose you,’ Jack asked while strolling along the dreamlike

desert and amidst the tall skyscrapers. It thus follows that the punctuated sequences of natural

phenomena – the unfolding of the universe, the cycle of the sun, the flocking of the birds, the

inhabitant of archosaurians – all gave an impression of being unreal.


Apparently, inclusion of those sequences does not seem to fit the diegetic temperature laid

at the start, hence viewers were coerced to relegate them to surrealism. These scenes have little

concerns with the diegetic narration of the characters in the film, but viewers were made to believe

that this is part of their struggle. That as the O’Brien’s mourn over their loss, the universe is

exponentially expanding; as Jack O’Brien struggles to suppress his childhood memories, flocks of

birds populate the skies of metro.

Inarguably, it is difficulty to create an immediate association between these sequences.

These dreamlike sequences gradually stirred from the occasional aggregation of unrelated scenes

to the puzzling reunion of the old Jack to his younger self and to his entire family who does not

seem to age. Amidst the imposing tall skyscrapers, it is almost surreal that a flock of migratory

birds were flying as if it was a green field. Here we see a portrayal of a contrived Jack in a contrived

world. Before he was framed by trees, now he is contrived within tall buildings.

With the extremist portrayal of un-real and hysteria, viewers tend to believe that the ways

of arranging the scenery and property of the film are reflective of the psychological condition of

Jack. For Mallick perhaps, the life of a human being is much like the life of the universe. What

Malick is trying to create in here is that we all have our own subjective reality. Our memories

exists in non-identical time and space capsules.


Space and Time

It makes sense to argue that the film persuaded the viewers to think that the present is a

congregate of all the historical, cosmic events that had occurred in the past. Towards the end of

the film, we saw Jack walking along a deserted, arid land with unspeakable bewilderment in his

face. Then he sees a vision of himself and all the people he had encountered throughout his life.

Such stretched and bizarre portrayal of time corroborates how metered time ‘isn’t enough to

capture reality’ (Shlain, 1993). The film traverses (and deconstructs) time and space

unceremoniously. Visual cues reveal that at one point, the movie is set at a post-war middle class

household, then at one point we are seeing dinosaurs

How Malick suddenly jumps from scene to scene is entirely unimportant since it has been

established from the start that the film would not subscribe to linear narratology. A huge chunk of

the film’s message was not meant to be narrated by words, but conveyed allegorically by the

putting of the elements of the scene.

Throughout The Tree of Life, there is a conscious manipulation of spatial and time

dimensions. For example, Malick relied on visual cues to tap mental stimuli in the character of

Jack. When Jack saw a tree in the middle of towering buildings, he was then transported to the

scene where he remembered his mother and father lamenting over the death of his brothers. It’s as

if they exist in the same spatial configuration, but in entirely different time frames. This is also the

scene where Malick’s intention to create a contrasting portraiture of nature and science, of the

simplicity of nature and the grandeur of man’s physicality, transpired.

When Jack saw the tree being planted at the midst of the skyscrapers, it hinged a slight

memory from him. He was reminded of something that is missing in him. His mother, the grace,


which used to fly along the trees. Although her flying is only metaphorical and an attempt to

ascribe divinity to the mother, what this scene accomplished is to justify the decision made in the

end: to recognize that the way of Grace is fulfilling.

The injection of sequences portraying cosmic creation in the middle of narrating the

tragedy of the O’Brien’s is spiritual and metaphorical. It was made to present the viewers with

something abstract, something that they can’t handle. So disjointed, the viewers were left with no

other option but to relegate anything unexplainable to the divine.

Conclusion

In the end, it could be inferred that Jack, despite of his attraction to the ways of grace,

ended navigating the ways of the nature. This scene is very palpable when we see the old Jack

walking across a bridge with metallic bars. This is reminiscent of the father’s walk in the factory

where he used to work. The railings were composed of sharp edges.


The ending does not provide a remedy, but hint on a reconciliation. As Jack passes through

a doorway in the midst of the arid terrain, he was transported to the seaside where everything

seemed perfect. The door then appears as an allegory to a portal of the afterlife. That after all of

the struggles and the calamities, nature and grace can be reunited.

Jack’s mysterious smirk at the end of the film is not meant to resolve his enigmatic

contemplation of how his life had turned out. Neither did it attempt to imply which path he chose.

Insofar as his intentions and psyche are unclear throughout the film, The Tree of Life warily refused

to consign a resolution to the complexities it presented. It prompted its absurd story and out-of-

this-world rendering of filmic elements permeate the consciousness of its passive spectators.

There are a lot of unanswered question in the film. Say, the reason for the death of the child

was not revealed to the audience. But the story is not about the loss and how we are invited to

grieve over the loss. We are instead invited to speculate on the struggle of Jack to reconcile the

gracious death of his brother and the lessons imparted to him by his parents.

In the end, after all has been done and destroyed, the viewers gaze at the same flickering

flame at the start of the film. It is indeed an undeniable allegory of the One who claimed to be the

same yesterday, today, and forever; who was exalted to be the first and the last.


References:

Gill, J. (1748). “John Gill’s exposition of the entire bible.” In FreeGrace.Net. Retrieved from

http://www.freegrace.net/gill/ last 2 February 2014.

Schager, N. (April 24, 2013). Hands brushing against wheat, or the many mimics of Terrence

Malick. In Vulture.com. Retrieved from http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/imitation-of-

style-the-terrence-malick-effect-to-the-wonder.html on 12 March 2014.

Shlain, L. (1993). Arts and physics: Parallel visions in space, time, and light. United Kingdom:

Harper Collins Publishers

http://www.freegrace.net/gill/

http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/imitation-of-style-the-terrence-malick-effect-to-the-wonder.html

http://www.vulture.com/2013/04/imitation-of-style-the-terrence-malick-effect-to-the-wonder.html

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On Terrence Malick's Tree of Life by JC Alfajora