MovieChat Forums > The Tree of Life (2011) Discussion > The point of the prehistoric and univers...

The point of the prehistoric and universe genesis sequence?

posted 9 years ago by nannomous
5 replies | jump to latest

I know this is a very subjective movie and what I got out of it may be completely different than what anyone else did.To me,the (staggeringly beautiful) shots of galaxies and the evolution of life were meant to help the viewer easily put everything into perspective and show how minuscule humans are in the grand scale of everything,and how even something as tragic as a mother losing a son is, in fact, unimportant to pretty much everyone else and everything else.It was meant to show the sheer size of the universe and the birth of our planet,evolution and destruction of other species and then : the year 1956,USA,Texas and a family is praying to a 2000 year old god to bless the food they're about to eat.Helps to show just how ridiculous religion is.Or at least that's how I interpret that.

[–] romefan123 9 years ago

Yes, you seem to have it..how insignificant ... yet vital ... our little lives are, and the meaning behind mercy, kindness, and love.

"Get the point...get the point!" Terry Silver Karate Kid III

[–] coolbrett 9 years ago

I really don't know what the point was actually. I think this movie is simply just a poem about all life in general. The beauty of life and how we grow and develop simply from living. I don't know if there was an actual 'point' to the universe scenes, but not everything has to have a point. It was just beautiful to watch and fit with the theme of the movie.

[–] undula 9 years ago

The simply breathtaking sequence of the evolution of the universe, Earth and life... Wow. Just wow.
I saw it as a metaphor for a life. Not life itself, but A life. How one person grows and develops more qualities (motor abilities, consciousness, feelings etc.).
Coupled with the previous scene, where the mother has lost her child, this showed me how quickly and suddenly a life can simply cease to exist, and how unreal that reality may be to us until it actually occurs. You have a child who grows and slowly becomes a man, and you don't really realize the amount of growth that happens in those early stages. There is just so much happening. And you expect him to keep growing until your life is over and beyond that. But then one day your child is gone forever, and you have no idea how this came to be.
This is the way I interpreted this, and I can tell you that I've rarely been so strongly affected by a movie before. I almost had to pause the movie because it was just absolutely heartbreaking.

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] Lightrend 9 years ago

The "point", to me, is to invoke the mystery of life. The universe can explain how life began and which events were required, but it can't justify it. The endless dead realms of space will taunt our egos until the end of time. Is it logical to think that we are sacred or special or "graceful" in or nature, when we have inherited our world from saber-toothed reptilian monsters (we share more than half of our genetic code with plants - dinosaurs are basically our brothers and sisters in this context)?

I love how they switch to these scenes while the mother is desperately whispering to God for guidance. Her perspective on reality is placed in the context of what life and existence actually is and looks like...

As an atheist I love that this movie never gives any comfort. It just displays the mystery.