Brad Pitt explains his take on Terrence Malick’s ‘Tree of Life’
The poetic American filmmaker Terrence Malick is rarely seen on the cinematic front, carefully picking each and every one of his projects. Such has made way for a staggering filmography, with Malick’s first three movies, 1973’s Badlands, 1978’s Days of Heaven, and 1998’s The Thin Red Line remaining his very best until the 2010s when he would release the sprawling human epic Tree of Life.
Nominated for three Academy Awards, including ‘Best Picture’, Malick’s divisive movie followed the lives of a family in Waco, Texas, in 1956, who traverse the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Starring Brad Pitt and Jessica Chastain as conflicting parents, the story sees their eldest son, Jack (Hunter McCracken), struggle through childhood whilst juggling the loss of innocence as a result of his mother and father’s nurture.
Where many found beauty in Malick’s film, others found ostentatious Oscar bait, making the film heavily divisive among fans and critics. Clocking in at approximately two hours and 20 minutes in length, the experimental exploration of cosmic love and ethereal parenthood involves a lot of ‘arty’ sequences where an older version of Jack, played by Sean Penn, stands around on a wet sandy beach.
This ambiguous plot led many to question what Malick’s intentions were behind the movie, with lead actor Brad Pitt shedding light on his interpretation of events in an interview with The Guardian back in 2011. Playing the role of the conflicted father in the movie, Pitt states: “Watching the film, and I’ve seen many cuts, I’m a guy who fights the idea of heaven but what I do respect is that there is a greater power than anything we understand, and for me the film is about that”.
Considering the themes of the movie even deeper, he adds, “Perhaps we don’t need these religious concoctions to pillow the fear of death. Just the fact that there is an unknown, and something greater, can bring a feeling of peace. That’s enough for me”.
Pitt’s experience on the set of the movie wasn’t all that straightforward either, with Malick running his productions far differently from mainstream Hollywood movies. “On a normal set it’s very loud, generators going, over 100 crew members,” Pitt explained to the publication, explaining: “There was none of that on this. There’s one guy with a camera on his back, no lights, and we’re free to roam wherever we want to roam”.
Such made for a liberating film experience for Pitt and his fellow cast members, with Malick starting each day by giving the actors a number of pages about where he wants their characters to think, feel and go. Attempting to capture a naturalistic feel on set and in the finished film, the director limited the amount of takes he captured, with Pitt recalling: “He doesn’t want to do more than two takes. And on the second one, he’d often throw in a dog or send in one of the kids, or just do something surprising to change the tenor of a scene. Then he’d laugh and laugh”.
Take a look at the trailer for the 2011 ‘Best Picture’ nominee below and let Malick’s spectacular tale wash over you.
