First Hit: Parts of this film were amazing; the visuals were beautiful and occasionally brilliant but in the end it was unsatisfying and longer than needed.
Sitting in the theater I was incredibly impressed with the visuals put together by Terrence Malick to represent the largeness of life, the universe, nature, the human spirit and human beings.
A comparison of what this film was about would be Stanley Kubrick’s "2001: A Space Odyssey". I can and do occasionally watch that film again and again, I will not watch Malick's film again. Why? I think the point of the film got lost along the way.
I put the pieces of this film together as I watched but I realized that I could also take sections out and still have it make sense because they seemed needless. Mr. O’Brian (played by Brad Pitt) is married to Mrs. O’Brien (played by Jessica Chastain).
It is the 1950s and the rule of the day is spare the rod, spoil the child. They live in Waco Texas and have three boys. The film begins with a quote from The Book of Job, when God asks, “Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation… while the morning stars sang together and all the angles shouted for joy?”
This is the theme of the entire film. Are we connected? Is there a beginning and end? Is there God? The quote is quickly followed by one of many colorful visual flames which are book markers throughout the film. While there is a whispering narrator asking the large insightful questions of the film, we enter a house and see Mrs. O’Brien reading a telegraph indicating her son has died.
There is anguish, the questions persist. Why would you (God) let him die? We bullet through time and see the older son Jack (played by Sean Penn) now an architect looking at a tree, asking questions, remembering his brother. We jump back and see young Jack (played by Hunter McCracken) as a troubled young man who struggles with his father and wondering why his father is so hard on him.
In the end, it comes together where the family is together in spirit and of Love. The film does a lot of communication without dialogue and is impressive this way.
Malick uses photos from the Hubble Telescope, and film clips of the Sun, Mercury passing by it, Jupiter, Saturn and other galaxies.
Penn is good as the oldest son and architect who brings the memories together. Pitt is amazing as a 1950’s father who works hard, never seems to find his way, and believes that the world is a difficult place to make your mark. He also knows that he doesn’t work at what he loves, which is music. Chastain, is etherically beautiful and outstanding as the stay at home 50’s mother who is subservient to her husband. McCracken is outstanding as the troubled older son growing up feeling unseen, misunderstood, and sad. Malick wrote and directed this with a focus on creativity but it lacks a pacing to keep the audience fully engaged the entire time. A sharper eye on editing and snipping celluloid would have made this unforgettable.
Overall: A good and interesting film, but it needed to be more crisp in its execution.