Based on 268 votes and 74 reviews.
Love it - in its essence, it’s a coming-of-age story put into relation of the history of the earth and our solar system. If that doesn’t blow your mind, then what? Great performances by everybody, you just have to let go and inhale what’s happening!
Seriously, this is a great movie, even though hard to get. Terrence Malick‘s masterpiece. In its core, we follow a family in the 1950‘s, but he doesn’t shy away of a billion years forth and back to span the history of earth and the universe. It reflects the tinyness of our being in the overall universe, with various scenes being reminiscent of “2001.” Within this overall scope, it contrasts the hope of achieving something significant with the disappointment of reality, then moving into the realm of spirituality to grasp whatever happens to our lives. Impressive performances of Jack, R. L. and Steve as the kids, and Brad Pitt as the father, Sean Penn somewhat dull as the adult Jack. You’ll have to be in the right melancholic mood to watch it, but you’ll enjoy this movie.
What a bunch of nonsense.
spiritual, my way or god's way theme extremely thought-provoking
a masterpiece. malick is up there with the greats like dreyer and tarkovsky. as for the reviewers who trashed it because it didn't make sense or there wasn't enough nudity (!), what can you say - that's what years of mindless tv junk does to your head.
Quite possibly the most self indulgent train-wreck of a film I've ever seen. First film I walked out on since 'Armageddon' (but for entirely different reasons). Watching this was akin to being battered about the face by the flaccid, shriveled member of the director (Malik). I invested two hours into this time sink before dashing for the exit. The religious mumbo-jumbo didn't do a thing for me either. Pseudo-intellectual garbage.
Unquestionably the worst movie in the last few years. Photography was great, but you get the same shots (only even better) when watching national geographic or pics from the Hubble space telescope, and in those situations the shots actually make sense with the context of the film. Shame on you Pitt and Penn for signing on to this one. For anyone else it would have been career suicide.
Having just rented the DVD I have to say that the photography was great. The only thing is I did'nt want to view a movie, but get told a story. The director made art in the shooting of the picture, but I think he miss it in the story. Could have been much better with not trying to WOW, but allow us more time to see the acting and not tell the story for our selves.
Poor acting. Pathetic plot.
Fantastic! The sequence beginning near the twenty minute point of the movie is stunning. The immensity of time drawn by the visual effects of our galaxy and creation of the earth advancing toward the relative moment of our entire existence emphasizes the fleeting good fortune we exist at all and how minor a roll our sorrows and questions play. Blended with Zbigniew Preisner’s “Lacrimosa” at the beginning of the sequence, it was a fantastic presentation. I’ve watched the film three times now.