Sunday, November 13, 2011
SPIRIT
Today's Terrence Malick film was his most recent.
This wonderful non-story about a family growing up together in the Fifties could easily be my story. A tough love Dad is at the center of it, Brad Pitt, as he learns how to be a good and loving parent with his oldest son Jack, played by a brilliant young actor named Hunter McCracken, who grows up to be Sean Penn whose voice, with others, undergirds this film. Malick does voiceover!
There is no story line. It is life in a mid size town. Midwest, home values, upward aspiring parents, a wonderful yard with so many things to do by just fooling around. Three boys in the family. Music, old time religion that isn't smothering. I think Catholic. But light.
A kid in the neighborhood dies. At night we listen outside the windows and learn about grown ups. An admixture of preteen experience. The beginning of physical yearnings.
And cosmic questions. What is it all about? Where do we go when we die? What is this about good and evil. Some other kids do bad things so Jack and his brothers try it out. It doesn't fit.
One thing that abounds is something that I missed. Brotherly love. Some of it is defense from the Dad who is strict but normal from that time. Manners. How to deal with authority.
Underpinning all this is a view of life universal. The cosmos which threw us here. Nature as we know it. Even primitive nature. Prehistoric animals, by god! Amazing. Microbiology. Small life all around us. Scenes of , the music of the spheres.
A melange which Malick has prepared for an intense emotional experience. There is a lot of prep. And then somewhere (and I read this happens with most people) there is a deep unconscious recognition and identification. Deep feelings.
There is a coda which answers some questions that have been posed. Wonderful. A 5 plus! I will definitely see this again. It is a lay back and enjoy and try not to think to much movie.
Labels: films
