Reflection

Our first class discussion on “Tree of Life” started with an introduction of the Book of Job, I’ve never heard of this before but I was interested to learn more about it. Clearly I didn’t pay attention in Sunday school, but I digress. Professor Devine explained to the class the biblical story of the Book of Job, I figured the reason why we were discussing this story was because it had something to do with the next movie, Tree of Life that we were going to watch. Movie night came, I watched the film “Tree of Life” and it was like I blinked and the entire movie was over, I had no idea what I just watched. The characters in the movie barely spoke and when they did speak they spoke soft and it was just very weird and a different experience. Every time I blinked my eyes it was another scene that connected or disconnected with the pervious one. Before I knew it the film was over and Professor Devine was turning the lights back on, as I walked out of the classroom I asked my peers what in the world did we just watch? They could barely explain a thing as well but, we all came to an agreement that we would make sure Professor Devine explained to us the essence of this film (he has a way of combining the entire class thoughts together to make us think that all of our thoughts are correct) but we wasn’t going to stand for it this time. The next day in class the entire had a million questions, what about the dinosaurs? How many kids were there? Did someone die? Did one of the brothers disappear? How come one of the brothers didn’t speak? What is this film really about is all I wanted to know. But of course Professor Devine wasn’t done expanding our mind by any means necessary so we can figure out the pieces to the puzzle ourselves. But, that was fine with me I like challenges. Next class we went over the tale of Peter Rabbit, Peter was a Rabbit that was told by his father to never enter the neighbors garden but, he did and when he did he got scared and had a hard time escaping from the garden. At this point, I must admit I did give up because, I didn’t understand exactly how they were related. Yea I know I noticed that in one scene that Professor Devine showed the class the father was telling the boys not to go into the neighbors garden; but what exactly does that have to do with anything? Why is that so important to understanding the film? I had no idea and I began to get frustrated, therefore I asked my peers to help me understand the connection. One of my peers explained perhaps Peter Rabbit connected to the Garden of Eden (now we’re getting somewhere I thought) but I’m unaware of all these biblical stories once again. Therefore I went back to the drawing bored, did a little research on what exactly the Garden of Eden was and I couldn’t understand what I was reading (I didn’t pay attention during Sunday school). Then, Professor Devine asked the class to research rotten tomatoes and try to make sense of what some of the critics were saying. I reviewed two different rotten tomatoes and FINALLY a positive outcome I made connections to the aspects, details, and theme of the film the critics explained. I learned how to connect the beginning of the film with the essence of the entire film through one little piece of light. Light who knew one scene of a film can mean so much? Who knew that the reason behind Jacks flashbacks as a child would be because he was scared by his father tough love actions? Who knew? I didn’t that’s who? Next we were assigned to read “Our Town” this was the deal breaker for me, Our Town finally put everything into perspective, at least I think. “Our Town” connected to “Tree of Life” because the girl Emily was living a dream the entire time, she died as a child and the entire play surrounded her living her life and appreciating the precious life of a human being; which is the same thing Jack tried to do as a child. Overall, this was one hell of an experience with this film “Tree of Life” it killed me not understanding the film for so long, I almost lost my mind. I was so desperate I asked Professor Devine’s wife to give me an insight; I as a human being few what I don’t understand. But what I gathered from “Our Town” and “Tree of Life” is there is more to life, life is precious because it’s a real human experience once your gone there is no way to get back the full effect of your child hood or life all you have to hold onto is memories and the what will always be their since the dinosaurs has been alive, nature.