The Tree of Life!

Before I write anything about this many awards-winning movie, let me warn you that this is a painfully (I mean painfully) slow movie and is a kind of experimental movie. Even it took years for the makers of this movie to bring the concept into visual form. It is said that Sean Penn was very disappointed with the translation of the solid script to the screen. I read the first unedited original script on the net, and I agree with him.

The movie's theme is a little complicated. There are two ways to nourish the Tree of Life. Either you follow the rules of 'nature' and live a strictly disciplined life. Another way is to live with 'grace,' where you follow the path of love. Ultimately, the writer argues that the course of 'love is the right path.

Plot: The movie rotates around a family of husband, wife, and three young sons based in Waco, Texas, somewhere in the 1950s. Brad Pitt is a loving but strict father. He has his own issues. He loves his kids, but he believes in strict discipline. He wants them to get prepared against the cruel world. And in the process, he destroys the harmony of the whole family, exceptionally when his older son (Jack) starts hitting puberty and so as rebellion. On another side, Mother tried to raise kids with love and play. Sounds like a typical Indian/Pakistani family back home? (Originally, the movie was supposed to be based in India).

So what makes this movie complicated? The abstract use of colors (not computer generated but the actual use of oil) shows the origin and evolution of life, portraying anger and grief as burning lava, showing dinosaurs doing an act of grace, symbolic death of older son Jack at the age of 19, the psychological journey of a young boy and how childhood experiences linger on till old hood (played by Sean Penn), symbolic use of a tree in the backyard, symbolic use of resurrection at the end when his father realizes his unfairness..........(Juziaat)

The most interesting part (for me) was when Mother told her daughters-in-law that: "I gave you my sons"

(MohabbatoN ka safar aage barhta hai).

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