The Tree of Life is a 2011 American epic experimental drama film written and directed by Terrence Malick and featuring a cast of Brad Pitt, Sean Penn, Hunter McCracken, Laramie Eppler, Jessica Chastain, and Tye Sheridan in his debut feature film role. The film chronicles the origins and meaning of life by way of a middle-aged man's childhood memories of his family living in 1950s Texas, interspersed with imagery of the origins of the known universe and the inception of life on Earth.

The Tree of Life
A series of images from the film arranged like mosaic tiles around the title.
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Terrence Malick
Written by
Terrence Malick
Produced by
Sarah Green
Bill Pohlad
Brad Pitt
Dede Gardner
Grant Hill
Starring
Brad Pitt
Sean Penn
Jessica Chastain
Cinematography
Emmanuel Lubezki
Edited by
Hank Corwin
Jay Rabinowitz
Daniel Rezende
Billy Weber
Mark Yoshikawa
Music by
Alexandre Desplat
Production
companies
River Road Entertainment
Plan B Entertainment
Distributed by
Fox Searchlight Pictures (North America and Europe)
Summit Entertainment (International)[1]
Release date
May 16, 2011 (Cannes)
May 27, 2011 (United States)
Running time
139 minutes[2]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$32 million[3]
Box office
$61.7 million[4]
After several years in development and missing its planned 2009 and 2010 release dates, The Tree of Life premiered in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival,[5] where it was awarded the Palme d'Or. It ranked number one on review aggregator Metacritic's "Top Ten List of 2011",[6] and made more critics' year-end lists for 2011 than any other film.[7] It appeared in the 2012 Sight & Sound critics' poll of the world's top 250 films[8] as well as BBC's poll of the greatest American films,[9] one of the few 21st-century works to be included in either. The film was also later named the seventh-greatest film since 2000 in a BBC poll of 177 critics.[10] In December 2019, The Tree of Life topped The Associated Press' list of the best films of the 2010s.[11] The Tree of Life received three Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Cinematography.

Plot Edit
The film begins with a quotation from the Book of Job 38:4-7: "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?" Then, a mysterious, flame-like light flickers in the darkness.

Around the 1960s, Mrs. and Mr. O'Brien are informed of the death of their 19-year-old son, R.L., throwing the family into turmoil. Circa 2010, the O'Briens' eldest son, Jack, is adrift in his modern life as an architect, though disillusioned by his youth. Amid all this, voiceovers from Ms. O'Brien asks God why should R.L. die. This is then followed by visuals depict the birth of the universe, later the Earth, where volcanoes erupt and microbes begin to form and replicate. Sea life is born, then plants on land, then dinosaurs. A dinosaur chooses not to kill another dinosaur that is injured and lying on the side of a river bed. An asteroid strikes the Earth.

In a suburban neighborhood in Waco, Texas, live the O'Briens. The young couple is enthralled by their new baby Jack and, later, his two brothers R.L. and Stevie. When Jack reaches adolescence, he is faced with the conflict of accepting the way of grace or nature, as embodied by his parents. Mrs. O'Brien, the embodiment of grace, presents the world to her sons as a place of wonder. Mr. O'Brien, the embodiment of nature, easily loses his temper as he struggles to reconcile his love for his sons, wanting to prepare them for a world he sees as corrupt and exploitative. He laments his decision to work in a power plant instead of pursuing his passion for music, and tries to get ahead by filing patents for various inventions.

Jack's perceptions of the world begin to change after two of his friends die in separate accidents. He becomes angry at his father's bullying behavior and begins to keep a running tally of Mr. O'Brien's hypocrisies and misdeeds, lashing out at Mrs. O'Brien for tolerating his father. One summer, Mr. O'Brien takes a long business trip; the boys enjoy unfettered access to their mother, and Jack experiences the first twinges of rebelliousness. Goaded by peers, Jack commits acts of vandalism and animal abuse, and later trespasses into the house of his crush, stealing her sheer nightgown. Confused and angered by his feelings of sexuality and guilty trespass, Jack fearfully throws it into a river. Shortly after Mr. O'Brien returns, the plant that he works at closes; he is given the option of relocating to work in an inferior position within the firm or losing his job. As he and his family pack up to move to the new job; he laments the course his life has taken, and asking Jack to forgive his domineering behavior; Jack reflectively says he embodies nature.

In the present, Jack leaves work. Riding the elevator up, he envisions following a young girl...