Personal Blogs

Dear Mr. Terrence Malick

I am writing to you concerning your latest motion picture entitled 'Tree of Life'.

Yesterday I got invited by some good friends to visit a local multiplex where we would be viewing 'Tree of Life'. At that moment I hadn't even heard of it and I needed to browse to the cinema's website to read the synopsis. Apart from that, I do know that my friend does have a similar taste in movies, so it seemed appropriate to join in.

As the film got on its way we were presented with images of a 1950's household which eventually was composed of a father, mother and three sons. I do not want to spoil the story completely so I will turn to what I actually want to express my feelings of: Symbolism. There is really a whole lot of it going on in the film. So much even that it was really hard to breath freely. We were presented with metaphors towards conception, newborns, despair, death. Some were fine some were really over the top — animals resembling female and male reproduction organs, for God's sake. At some point we even visit the prehistoric and witness the alleged source for the demise of the dinosaurs. All this can be nice, but I think you should have kept these out of this film and left them to the experts in natural history documentary. So, the film provides us with some good examples of symbolism, but it is the sheer volume of them that at some point got me numb. And consequently left me that way for the remainder of the film.

Was this film partly funded by Sir Richard Branson? These abundant stellar and earth observations might eventually stimulate wealthy people to take a trip with his Virgin Galactic enterprise. In that regard it is somewhat similar to broadcasts like BBC's Top Gear, which features many exuberantly expensive cars only a few are able to buy, but it nevertheless serves a very broad audience of 'common people'. And this is just where these images have left me. They seem to be no more than a travel-guide to inhabitable and unreachable destinations, a collection of trade cards from extinct animals and or a selected reading of human emotions.

So Mr. Malick, was this your sole intention? To impress viewers with stunning photography of life in all its aspects. It must be said, the images are exquisite and certainly the way most of the actors and action are depicted is utterly beautiful. However, I can't but question what you actually aimed for? Did you expect people to grasp that — life as it is progressing — needs some redirecting? It for sure does, but I am very sceptic towards the effect this film would have upon people who are not already aware that such is the case. Maybe you just asked the agency to pay for a trip around the world, writing a storyline and shooting some footage along the way. You do seem to have visited about every conceivable foot-mark, left by the 'milestones' in Earth's Life. That said, any fictional work is based upon ones personal views and experiences. My view on this film is as personal as yours making it. So therefore I can not and will not really criticize any of it more than I've already done. It did however left me with some awkward moments and I can not yet comprehend half of it.

Coincidently, tonight one of the local TV stations will be broadcasting 'The Thin Red Line'. In an effort to understand why yesterday's cinema experience left me with such a feeling of aloofness I am going to watch it closely. Moreover, I am going to place an online order for the Badlands DVD, so I can re-watch this one as well. Reviewing these might eventually provide me with enough elements to determine what has driven you to execute your latest creation the way you did.

From what you have been reading here it might seem that the aforementioned film hasn't touched me in any positive manner. In fact, it did just the right thing for me. If 'Tree of Life' would have been either top-notch or disastrously bad, I wouldn't have felt the need to have a say about it in such a personal manner. In those circumstances I would at most make use of those omnipresent and totally overrated social networks to communicate my feelings to the world. But as it stands, last nights emotions have inspired me to write my first ever Open Letter.

So, in view of all things that you have already produced, the ones you are working on and the ones you might not yet even think about.

Thanks a million!

Yours truly,