THE TREE OF LIFE

She must really like you. If she was willing to go sit through that shit movie and not bother to tell you she already saw it, it's pretty obvious. Don't tell Panchy, he'll get mad.

 

No, that was not really the intention of the scene, though I think it was meant to be mostly ambiguous.

Here's a more detailed explanation here:

http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2012/04/tree_of_life_the_missing_link_.html

 

Yeah, but that had nothing to do with the dino's.

Dino wasn't choosing between right a wrong. It was more of a prey/predator, dominant/altruistic............or what they say in the article "compassionate" event.

Though I admit, even I saw it a bit differently. I saw paw on the face as dominance, and then the raptor sparing the smaller dinosaur as more of an act of arrogance. "You're not even worth my time to devour, you're so small and sickly."

 

Thinking on it more, I think it actually had more to do with the brief moments of compassion the father showed with his sons.

90% of the time he was the dominant alpha male, the other 10% he lightened up just a little bit.

 

I don't get mad as long as he keeps her away from me as much as possible.

 

Older boy Jack hated the old man but was most like him.

The Middle child was able to connect with the old man better through music, but was also a bigger victim to him, because he was kind of a pansy. He was his mothers son.

Youngest child, probably should have just left him out of the movie. He seemed to have no purpose whatsoever.

Grace was idealized by the boys. She let them be boys. Father didn't, father forgot what it was like to be a boy. Mother was almost a mythical figure to them. She protected them, played with them. She could do no wrong as shown when they saw her as a Peter Pan figure in one scene and Sleeping Beauty in another.

Neither was all right or all wrong. If anything the movie is a proponent of two parent families. You need a bit of both. You need the hard-ass old man to kick your ass if you do wrong, teach you certain things, and keep you scared enough to keep from going over the line completely...........and you need the soft motherly figure to teach you compassion, let you be a child and explore the world, to protect you from your dad when HE goes over the line.

She may have undermined him at times, but he also undermined her. In the end the goal is to strike a balance between the two.

 

Oh geez can we let this thread die already.

 

Jessica Chastain :bears:

 

Thanks for adding to the post count. The legend of this movie grows by the minute at FightBeat.com.

:bears:

 

Would dinosaurs be able to live in c. 1950's-60's Mid-America?

Would they be able to adapt as Father did, slowly but surely? Would they show compassion to us pithy humans?

The questions abound.

















::::

 

Just trying to do my part. It is my thread after all.

 

..........and a fine thread it is.


:bears:

 

I think you saw her undermining him because it was obviously declared by him at several points in the movie.

She did not complain and was not vocal unless she absolutely needed to be with him.

He brought anxiety to the household, occasional bursts of violence, fear.................which undermined her need for peace and non-conflict.

The boy was not ok until the dad left. He became ok WHEN the dad left, and became resentful of the fear he felt waiting for dad to come back.

 

I think he obviously jacked off onto the dress and was ashamed of it afterwards.

Maybe he grew up to be Bill Clinton. ::

 

You must be a tough dad Anthony.

Father was a hard-ass, and they needed a break from it every once in awhile. That much was clear.

Father and Mother were yin and yang. You needed one to keep balance with the other.

I think the kids turned out all right in the end, at least the one who wasn't killed.

Parenting is hard, there's no absolute right way to raise a kid and all kids are different and need to be handled differently, even from the same brood.

 

It's a microcosm of life in general Anthony. You are looking to find fault or assign blame to the Mom or the Dad.

There's nothing to blame. They had no bigger problems then most people in life. I had a similar family dynamic growing up. Probably millions of others to.

If the Penn character had issues later in life, it wasn't because his mother was too soft on him and let him undermine his dad..........and I don't think he ever "Got Over" the issues he had.

It was one single day for him. The Anniversary of his brothers death. He'll probably go through the same shit, next year, same time.

It's a struggle we all go through trying to navigate our own shit.