{"id":15084,"date":"2011-06-29T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2011-06-29T10:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084"},"modified":"2011-06-28T15:12:11","modified_gmt":"2011-06-28T19:12:11","slug":"terrence-malick","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084","title":{"rendered":"Scaling The Tree of Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>There\u2019s a pleasing irony to reading the many discussions of Terrence Malick<\/a>\u2019s The Tree of Life<\/a> that refer to the movie as \u201cunconventional.\u201d The implication, naturally, is that we\u2019re being given something so new in cinema that it\u2019s revolutionary, when in fact, the movie that takes on the very foundations of the universe as part of its oblique narrative is not a sapling on the cutting edge of filmmaking technique, but something more akin to a giant redwood, with its roots thick in the origins of movie language.<\/p>\n

The story is simplicity itself, something that is perhaps obscured for some by what appears to be its alien approach: Architect Jack O\u2019Brien (Sean Penn<\/a>) experiences the anniversary of his brother\u2019s untimely death with considerable anguish and difficulty, as seen through a series of reveries that puts him in touch with memories that connect him to impressions of the origins of life itself even as he is drawn back to recalling specific episodes from the days of his uneasy childhood in 1950s Texas.<\/p>\n

His father (Brad Pitt<\/a>) is a difficult man to love, as he is strict, demanding, and hard at work controlling his own personal demons. Once hoping to become a brilliant musician, he was instead \u201csidetracked\u201d into a career as an engineer.\u00a0Jack’s mother (Jessica Chastain<\/a>) is the parent\u00a0he and his two brothers find much easier to adore, as she is nurturing, forgiving, and generous.<\/p>\n

Young Jack (Hunter McCracken<\/strong>) is a boy we see growing to resent the treatment he receives from his father, even as he begins to suffer the consequences of it by becoming more and more like him every day. His father tells him \u201cyou can\u2019t be too good\u201d to succeed in the world, and as the boy appears to move towards embracing that advice against his own better judgment, he becomes still more aware of how the opposite nature of his mother continues to \u201cwrestle inside\u201d his heart.<\/p>\n

Malick makes a concerted effort as the film unspools to break down some of the barriers of what we would normally think of as the natural\u00a0progression of a story\u2019s timeline, so that towards the end of the film, past, present, and future all appear to be engaging one another in gestures of deep recognition and awareness. Some viewers have interpreted the key scene where this happens as Malick\u2019s vision of the \u201cafterlife,\u201d but there are sequences that follow that clearly indicate\u2014at least to me\u2014that it is instead the moment of spiritual catharsis that adult Jack\u2019s memories and internal suffering have been building toward through the entire film.<\/p>\n

If this story sounds very traditional, it should, because it is. It has to be, in order not to interfere with what I took to be Malick\u2019s genuine purpose, which is to ask the viewer to not become \u201cjust\u201d emotionally involved, but to thoughtfully interact with the religious and philosophical matters of his concern.<\/p>\n

Opening with a Biblical quote\u00a0pertaining to\u00a0God\u2019s response to Job (which we will read very easily as analogous to the experiences of every character), Malick then offers us an opening voiceover that is 100% the key to understanding everything that is to come:<\/p>\n

There are two ways through life: the way of <\/em>Nature, and the way of <\/em>Grace. You have to choose which one you’ll follow. Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. Likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy when all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things. Grace doesn’t try to please itself. Accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked. Accepts insults and injuries.<\/em><\/p>\n

To be just a little reductive, let\u2019s just spell it out:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Nature = Brad Pitt, Jack\u2019s Dad.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Grace = Jessica Chastain, Jack\u2019s Mom.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Jack, as the adult child of these warring influences, struggles to choose the proper path that will help him to cope with the loss of his brother and his own complicated relationship with his father. And, as the Job quote at the outset makes abundantly clear, this dialogue is one that is taking place between the characters (through not just Penn, but through Pitt, Chastain, and McCracken) and their concepts of God, which is how what some viewers are calling the \u201cDiscovery Channel\u201d footage is then brought into play.<\/p>\n

That footage mostly takes shape in an extended sequence that includes the Big Bang, the heaving of volcanoes, the evolution of cells, and yes, the appearance of dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re therefore meant to extend the nature vs. grace argument through Jack\u2019s parents and to our own difficulties with the central paradox involved in the concept of a Supreme Being who appears to be both all-loving and indifferently cruel. In The Tree of Life<\/em>, that being is fairly well defined through the specific tenets of Christianity, but not so rigidly that the ideas involved cannot be appreciated by those of different\u2014or even no\u2014allegiances to doctrinaire faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Jack\u2019s parents are his creator(s). Within him, the paths of \u201cnature\u201d and \u201cgrace\u201d (as Malick defines them) are jockeying for the lead position in his heart. They both exert their force of influence over him. How can these ways of being exist in a balance that makes any sense? Placing yourself in the mind of a child, you might ask why you are burdened with making\u00a0the choice, when to go down one path\u2014which might be appealing in many ways\u2014appears to involve a rejection and betrayal of the other, which appears just as often to be crucial to your survival and peace of mind.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Then, placing yourself in the mind of a parent, you may ask which path must I choose in order to guide my children to safety and greatness? Must it be one or the other? Could it, should it, must<\/em> it be both? Is there a secret to discovering which path a divine Creator has set out upon, if such a thing is conceivable in that very prosaic manner\u2014or could He-She-It be asking the very same questions at all times\u2026then, later, and now?<\/p>\n

Malick\u2019s film uses the simplest of stories as the vehicle\u00a0carrying the largest of inquiries. Constantly, the characters are demanding\u2014sometimes literally, sometimes through suggestion and symbols\u2014How? Why? Answer me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Movies of this type\u2014and they are rare, indeed, in the modern-day marketplace\u2014lend themselves to critiques that aim to be as grand and sweeping as the film. This is to be expected, and it\u2019s not entirely objectionable, because respectful responses to a film should be adequate to its ambitions. The only error, I think, is in the suggestion that the gateway to appreciating (or rejecting) this sort of work lies in the mastery of complexities that are hidden<\/em> from all but the most erudite of minds. And this mistake is partly to be located in estimations of the film as innovative in its construction.<\/p>\n

Forgetting about all the highfalutin\u2019 philosophizin\u2019 for a moment, we must understand that the basic physical assembly<\/em> of the movie has been completed using ideas as “old as the hills,” as they say.<\/p>\n

Or, at least, as old as the movies.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Light on synchronous dialogue (as in, you know\u2026conversations<\/em> between one character and another) and much heavier on voiceovers, music, and surprising compositions and editing, this movie comes to us as a meditation on the nature of God (or \u201cexistence,\u201d take your pick) crafted very much by way of what the \u201cfilm literate\u201d would refer to as montage<\/em>. And, more specifically, montage as Sergei Eisenstein<\/a> thought of it.<\/p>\n

The director of Battleship Potemkin<\/a> was crucial to forming the earliest theories about what cinematic language could achieve in communicating with the audience. In his view, there were actually tiers of higher and lower practice in cutting together different images on film, sort of like the distinctions between \u201chigh\u201d and \u201clow\u201d art. As you approached a loftier design on editing, you disregarded rules of space, as well as continuity of time or action, to move towards a more abstract and intellectual<\/em> level of connection.<\/p>\n

To simplify things a bit, this is to say that the filmmaker embracing a more \u201clowly\u201d level of montage, in the Eisenstein view, would be more concerned with activating our baser emotions\u2014an accusation some movie fans would level, for example, at directors like Steven Spielberg<\/a>. At the \u201chigher\u201d level, we\u2019d be talking about films like Kubrick\u2019s 2001: A Space Odyssey<\/a>, which to most people is\u00a0less emotionally accessible (as people often find Kubrick to be in general) than intellectually challenging.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s keep in mind, this would be Eisenstein talking, not me, when it comes to things like adjudicating what\u2019s \u201chigher\u201d and \u201clower\u201d on the scale of filmmaking art. My point is drawn just to illustrate that Malick\u2019s narrative techniques here aren\u2019t the stuff of surprising movements like the French New Wave, they\u2019re more like the stuff of 1920s Soviet cinema. But yes\u2014you can safely purchase a ticket to The Tree of Life<\/em>, watch it, enjoy it, appreciate it, or hate it unreservedly and not have to worry about being exposed to Marxist dialectics.\u00a0You can be a devout Christian and find much to relate to. You can also be an agnostic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

As I\u00a0near the end of my own response to the film, I see I\u2019ve not yet included what now seems to be the obligatory beatific gush over Emmanuel Lubezki\u2019s cinematography (magnificent though it is), made any comment on Alexandre Desplat\u2019s ambitious musical score (rarely has a film given so much importance to the soundtrack), offered an appraisal of the quality performances (Pitt is effective as always; Chastain does wonders with what is often a mute performance; the children are delightfully unaffected, naturalistic), or delivered any observations about how the specific contours of the script are either fresh or mundanely recycled\u2026I\u2019ll say my verdict is a little of both.<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t pleased with every moment and every choice made; Penn\u2019s screen time seemed too minor to me, given it\u2019s primarily his dilemma that we initially are led to believe will be the spine of the film.<\/p>\n

Composer Desplat\u2019s other works\u00a0have been\u00a0routinely extraordinary (particularly his scores for Birth<\/a> and The Painted Veil<\/a>), but here\u00a0I felt the use of much overtly\u00a0religious \u201cheavenly choir\u201d material\u2014not always composed, but perhaps in part\u00a0chosen by him<\/a>?\u2014to be narrowing its appeal a bit too much for my taste.<\/p>\n

But then, I should probably also admit that I first thought the movie\u2019s final shot\u2014no, no spoilers here\u2014to be shockingly banal, only to realize just a short time later just how apropos it really was, and how Malick lets us know, in those final few seconds, how we might manifest the film\u2019s internal burdens in the external world by making Herculean efforts to connect.<\/p>\n

So, in retrospect, while I experienced many frustrations\u00a0while watching\u00a0The Tree of Life<\/em>, those seem a little small to me now. What the film may evoke best is that the tree of life is indeed very tall. It takes a while to climb, and it requires much effort before you attain a spot high enough to see clearly all around you.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s a pleasing irony to reading the many discussions of Terrence Malick\u2019s The Tree of Life that refer to the movie as \u201cunconventional.\u201d The implication, naturally, is that we\u2019re being given something so new in cinema that it\u2019s revolutionary, when…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":15085,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1601,1602],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-15084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-staff-notes","tag-brad-pitt","tag-terrence-malick"],"yoast_head":"\nScaling Terrence Malick The Tree of Life<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Terrence Malick The Tree of Life: A look at "The Tree of Life" starring Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and. Is :the Tree of Life" unconventional or revolutionary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Scaling Terrence Malick The Tree of Life\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Terrence Malick The Tree of Life: A look at "The Tree of Life" starring Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and. Is :the Tree of Life" unconventional or revolutionary\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"MovieFanFare\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Movies-Unlimited\/88679322377\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-06-29T10:00:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"381\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"George D. Allen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"George D. Allen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"10 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"George D. Allen\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/45709d6791583b25dbf6c3bf2fa8407e\"},\"headline\":\"Scaling The Tree of Life\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-29T10:00:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084\"},\"wordCount\":1909,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Brad Pitt\",\"Terrence Malick\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Staff Notes\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084\",\"name\":\"Scaling Terrence Malick The Tree of Life\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-06-29T10:00:53+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/45709d6791583b25dbf6c3bf2fa8407e\"},\"description\":\"Terrence Malick The Tree of Life: A look at \\\"The Tree of Life\\\" starring Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and. Is :the Tree of Life\\\" unconventional or revolutionary\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2011\\\/06\\\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg\",\"width\":381,\"height\":600},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?p=15084#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Scaling The Tree of Life\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"MovieFanFare\",\"description\":\"Movie Articles, Movie Reviews, New DVD Releases\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/45709d6791583b25dbf6c3bf2fa8407e\",\"name\":\"George D. Allen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/56a1cadf2f7f5a7f15e12d39c6c3b814f2cad71faf1e183353ae566f39294351?s=96&d=mm&r=gea8fff3599f696124a08bc4e274d5b0e\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/56a1cadf2f7f5a7f15e12d39c6c3b814f2cad71faf1e183353ae566f39294351?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/56a1cadf2f7f5a7f15e12d39c6c3b814f2cad71faf1e183353ae566f39294351?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"George D. Allen\"},\"description\":\"George produces Movie Irv's video content for MovieFanFare; he loves the Universal Monsters, Tarzan movies, \\\"You Bet Your Life,\\\" and Werner Herzog films.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com\"],\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/www.moviefanfare.com?author_name\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Scaling Terrence Malick The Tree of Life","description":"Terrence Malick The Tree of Life: A look at \"The Tree of Life\" starring Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and. Is :the Tree of Life\" unconventional or revolutionary","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Scaling Terrence Malick The Tree of Life","og_description":"Terrence Malick The Tree of Life: A look at \"The Tree of Life\" starring Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and. Is :the Tree of Life\" unconventional or revolutionary","og_url":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084","og_site_name":"MovieFanFare","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Movies-Unlimited\/88679322377","article_published_time":"2011-06-29T10:00:53+00:00","og_image":[{"width":381,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"George D. Allen","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"George D. Allen","Est. reading time":"10 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084"},"author":{"name":"George D. Allen","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#\/schema\/person\/45709d6791583b25dbf6c3bf2fa8407e"},"headline":"Scaling The Tree of Life","datePublished":"2011-06-29T10:00:53+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084"},"wordCount":1909,"commentCount":1,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg","keywords":["Brad Pitt","Terrence Malick"],"articleSection":["Staff Notes"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084","url":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084","name":"Scaling Terrence Malick The Tree of Life","isPartOf":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg","datePublished":"2011-06-29T10:00:53+00:00","author":{"@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#\/schema\/person\/45709d6791583b25dbf6c3bf2fa8407e"},"description":"Terrence Malick The Tree of Life: A look at \"The Tree of Life\" starring Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and. Is :the Tree of Life\" unconventional or revolutionary","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/tree_of_life_ver2.jpg","width":381,"height":600},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?p=15084#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Scaling The Tree of Life"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#website","url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/","name":"MovieFanFare","description":"Movie Articles, Movie Reviews, New DVD Releases","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/#\/schema\/person\/45709d6791583b25dbf6c3bf2fa8407e","name":"George D. Allen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56a1cadf2f7f5a7f15e12d39c6c3b814f2cad71faf1e183353ae566f39294351?s=96&d=mm&r=gea8fff3599f696124a08bc4e274d5b0e","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56a1cadf2f7f5a7f15e12d39c6c3b814f2cad71faf1e183353ae566f39294351?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/56a1cadf2f7f5a7f15e12d39c6c3b814f2cad71faf1e183353ae566f39294351?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"George D. Allen"},"description":"George produces Movie Irv's video content for MovieFanFare; he loves the Universal Monsters, Tarzan movies, \"You Bet Your Life,\" and Werner Herzog films.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com"],"url":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com?author_name"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15084"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.moviefanfare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=15084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}