Review of the film The Tree of Life – Directed by Terence Malick

by Sharon Tillotson

I recently strolled past the marquee of our neighbourhood theatre and noticed the film The Tree of Life was playing. I love this theatre; it has one screen and is located underground. It does not normally, however, show underground films. Instead it mostly plays mainstream movies once their first run in major theatres has completed. The King’s Speech and Bridesmaids both recently ran there.

I tripped down the few stairs to the board to have a closer look. Not much information, just a series of bright vignettes that didn’t seem to fit together in any meaningful way. When I got home I visited the website. The same series of pictures came up, along with a tiny invitation to enter. I entered.  Inside was a baby’s foot and two arrows, one pointing to ‘The Father’s Way’ and one to the mother’s. More images, and, to be fair to both parties, 599 ‘comments’ (all positive of course) on the film for each parent. At the bottom lay a small invitation to view the official movie site. Strange, I thought I was at the official movie site.

My suspicions were realized when I accepted the invitation. All those same ambiguous images and secret entrances, and not much more. It was clearly an art film. I often attend art films. I probably enjoy about three quarters of them and thought this one might be worth exploring. After all, it starred Brad Pitt and Sean Penn and seemed to suggest it was about the ‘meaning of life’. I discovered it had won the Palme d’Or award at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Right up there with The Pianist, The Piano… and Pulp Fiction.

I convinced my daughter to see it with me. We weren’t able to go the week I noticed the film on the marquee, but instead opted to see it the following week when it was running as a matinee. On a lovely Saturday afternoon we descended the many steps about five minutes before the start, as the theatre never tends to be full, even for successful movies. Imagine our surprise when we stepped from the lobby, our hands full of popcorn and drinks, into the darkened viewing area – and the seats were almost all taken. However, we were able to find two pretty good seats.

I understood the parts of the film all right. The movie begins with some of the images I had seen on the board and website, plus a few animated squishy things oozing out of the oceans; an eye or two that was probably depicting the eye of God; the Milky Way; and many other things which taken together were easily enough identifiable as the expansion of the Universe and origins of Life – in a psychedelic sort of way that went on for what felt like more days than the Bible suggests God would have taken.  

The middle part was a sepia-type depiction of an unfulfilled engineer (Brad Pitt) in the 1950’s who was trying to do the right thing by his family, while squashing his own creative dreams. I enjoyed that part. It was evocative and heartbreaking and set up the conflict of his eldest son in the future.

Alas, poor Sean Penn as that eldest son got short-shrift. We see him in the present, in jarring images interspersed with the rest of the story, of a middle-aged man following in the footsteps of his father. Clearly equally unfulfilled, he works as an architect in a glass and steel high-rise in a big city. We hear his fragmented whispers of existential questions. He steps outside to some Godforsaken treeless landscape and climbs a boulder-strewn path to a door that is just standing there with no obvious support. Eventually he steps through the door and is reunited on a beach with his family – in the same idyllic time period of the 1950’s.

Not a bad concept. It could have been a glorious film. So what went wrong? As a friend posted to her Facebook page, I was never engaged in the story. It was fragmented in the extreme. I have since read that it took many years to complete and kept losing its backing and distribution rights. I’m not surprised. Frankly, I could not comprehend the reason for the film. I appreciate movies that make one think. I understand and celebrate that everyone must come to their own understanding of the meaning of Life, and that sometimes one finds hidden meanings within a good book or film which help us see our own ‘truth’. This was not such a film. It left this viewer wanting to forget she’d ever seen it. The Guardian quoted Penn himself as saying in an interview with Le Figaro, “The screenplay is the most magnificent one that I’ve ever read but I couldn’t find that same emotion on screen,” he said. “A clearer and more conventional narrative would have helped the film without, in my opinion, lessening its beauty and its impact…”

I know others must have enjoyed the film. As mentioned previously, the theatre was uncommonly full and I did not see even one person get up and leave before the end. Perhaps like me, they were expecting something meaningful to come from it, eventually. Perhaps those who are the kind of person who feels life needs be a hopeless struggle would have engaged with the film. But my own understanding of the concept of The Tree of Life is one of Love; ever growing, ever evolving, ever thriving.

Two weeks or so on, it still leaves me wondering if there was something I missed…

Treadmill 101 – An Exercise Program for Baby Boomers

It’s been five months now, since I’ve retired from corporate life. Now instead of living five days a week, from 8 to 5, in a space that is roughly 8 feet by 8 feet, lined with fabric (read “cube”) I now reside in a loft of much bigger proportions. When I decided to “retire”, which I mark here with quotations because I’m working harder now than I did when I had a real job, I thought of all the cool things I’d be able to do when I retired:  I’d become a gardener, a gourmet cook, my spice rack will be organized alphabetically, I’ll become “addicted to exercise”.

Some of those plans didn’t quite materialize. The garden is only marginally  better and I find that I procrastinate when it comes to any outdoor work, waiting for the perfect 70 degree day, my cooking is somewhat less than gourmet, although I did make pesto this summer with basil that I grew in my own garden (see ”gardener” above) and my spice rack is in the same state it always was, and that is when I need “marjoram” every bottle/jar has to be removed before I am able to locate the right one.

However, one thing that I did do, was I started an exercise program and

drum roll…

I have kept with it. For five months. That’s longer than I have ever done in my life.  And, I find I enjoy it. We all know that we need to do thirty minutes of cardio exercise at least three times a week. I’m doing better than that, at least five times a week. And, though exercise has never been my favorite thing to do, recently it has become a lot more enjoyable and I thought I’d share my thoughts.

The success one has at a treadmill cardio program is directly proportional to the quality of his or her diversion. Anyone who thinks they will keep up with it without benefit of 1) nice scenery, 2) television, or 3) music, is bound for failure. Two of these diversions are nice to have, although one will usually be enough and 2 and 3 are mutually exclusive. I do not have the benefit of nice scenery, and television doesn’t do it for me, so I am a #3 person.

As such, I’ve spent a lot of time perfecting my iPod Treadmill Playlist and I thought I’d share it. Keep in mind, this is a beginner regimen, so my MPH might not be as fast as a more experienced exerciser. I start my warm up at 2.0 MPH and increase it on the whole minute up to 3.2 MPH. That’s 2.0, 2,2, 2.5, 2.8, 3.0 and 3.2 MPH, a five minute warmup.

The maximum of 3.2 MPH works for me, but this might need to be increased for a taller person. The incline is what makes the workout more strenuous, so this should be increased gradually over time, at the discretion of the exerciser. I am now at 1% for warmup and cool down, 2% for ten, 3% for ten, and back to 2% for ten minutes. Increase this once it becomes easy, but if it starts hurting, better back it off. Getting shin splints isn’t going to be helpful to any exercise program. In fact, it is most unhelpful, because it will probably set you back a day or two as your muscles recover. So don’t overdo it. That’s my advice.

Go slow. When you feel it twinging, cut it back. After all, we’re baby boomers here, some of us are on Medicare. And some days are better than others. That’s life. Go with that, and if today you can’t jack it up to the incline you did yesterday, sobeit.

The following playlist can be used indefinintely, unless you decide to start running marathons, but for the average I-just-want-to-live-longer-and-feel-better type workout, it works.

I have found the group ZZ Top to be the best, for general, medium stride beat-thomping music. Consistently excellent for walking in time. Every second song on my playlist is a ZZ Top song. Here is the playlist, in order, with comments.

1. Start Me Up (Rolling Stones) – What better way to start than with “Start Me Up”? A very good way to get it going, and a pleasant diversion to the start of what seems an insurmountable 40 minutes. Picture Mick Jagger, craggy, untouched by plastic surgery. He’s what, 68? And a physical specimen. Well, mostly.

2. Gimme All Your Lovin’ (ZZ Top) – Now the warm up is about half way through, the MPH increased enough to walk exactly in time with this very upbeat piece. By the end of the song, I’m at maximum speed, and still I can walk in time with the beat.

3. Old Time Rock & Roll (Ron Dante) – Now we’re at about six minutes and this song is a medley of Old Time Rock & Roll and Mony, Mony. The first part is fast, I have to really speed up, take small steps, I’m almost at a half jog here. Mony slows it down just enough that I’m back to a fast walk. This one makes me want to almost march, it’s very uplifting.

4. Sharp Dressed Man (ZZ Top) – A great song. I wish I could more adequately describe music here, but the pulsating beat in this is enough to keep anyone going. And the funny lyrics, “every girl crazy ‘bout a sharp dressed man”. This song is over before I know it, and by now I realize I’m not keeping an eye on the timer every 20 seconds, I’m just enjoying ZZ Top and how my walking is exactly timed with the music. (“Yeah, Baby!”)

5. Crumblin’ Down (John Mellencamp) – Another #1 excellent treadmill song. Long stride, I’m walking along (going nowhere) arms swinging, having fun. And the walls come tumblin’ down! Great, great song.

6. Doubleback (ZZ Top) – This one is not my favorite ZZ Top song but the worst is still great. After #5, I’m ready to just stride out for awhile, take it easy before the next onslaught. This one allows me to do that.

7. King’s Highway (Tom Petty) – This speeds me up. I’m almost running again, because my steps have become so short in order to keep up with it. I can feel it in the back of my thighs and my butt.

8. Give It Up (ZZ Top) – This one has a great beginning. After #7, again, I’m glad to lengthen my stride and chill to this (yet again) excellent rock and roll song. The beat pulsates, I’m getting heated up, I’m loving it.

9. She’s Not There (The Zombies) – This is a really old sixties song. It doesn’t start out too well, so I stumble trying to find the rhythm for a bit, then on the chorus it speeds up and I find it and it’s great. Repeats three times. Slower, faster, fast. It’s a good addition to the playlist.

10. Gun Love (ZZ Top) – Starts out pretty well, same beat that allows me not to think too much about adjusting my steps. I love the lyrics of this one, “Playin’ Russian roulette but she’ll load all six”.

11. Proud Mary (CCR) – This starts the cool down. Such a pleasant way to end, and I sure love those lyrics “Left a good job in the city, workin’ for the man every night and day”. Oh, yeah, that’s hittin’ close to home.

12. La Grange (ZZ Top) – This is good cool down tune. Funny lyrics, “They’ve got a lot of nice girls-a”. But usually the 40 minutes is up before this one finishes anyway.

The warm up and top speed songs are the most important to my workout. By the time 35 minutes have gone by, I could listen to anything.

I’d welcome comments, additions, or suggestions to the perfect Baby Boomer Treadmill Playlist!