Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life Trailer Starring Brad Pitt and Sean Penn

Posted by on December 15th, 2010   Filed under: Drama, Trailers

I have to admit, I have been somewhat perplexed by how much hype has been building for Terrence Malick’s new film The Tree of Life as of late. Aside from the fact that the film stars Brad Pitt and Sean Penn and has been in development for about five years, most of the anticipation seems to stem from Malick’s reputation as a filmmaker. And while he is clearly a man who takes his time in between projects (a full 20 years between Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line), his most recent film The New World wasn’t even that well received from what I remember. That being said, now that I’ve seen the first trailer for The Tree of Life, I totally understand what all the fuss is about.

I’m still not really sure what the story is, but the basic plot synopsis describes it as revolving around a Midwestern boy’s loss of innocence and his quest to regain meaning in life. However, it is the imagery alone that makes this look so amazing. The trailer is hauntingly gorgeous with some strange fantastical landscapes mixed in, and it definitely seems destined to garner comparisions to Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain. After numerous delays and changes in distributors, Fox Searchlight will finally release The Tree of Life on May 27th, 2011. Will it be worth the wait? Check out the trailer in HD over at Apple.com, or watch an embedded version after the jump.



  • Elder Wand

    The scifi elements are the only thing that look interesting.

  • I saw this trailer before Black Swan, and had one of those, “Why can’t I be seeing that right now?” moments.

    Then I saw Black Swan, and everything was OK again.

  • Darksider

    This looks epic!!

  • Napalm

    Visuals look great but plot wise I don’t know what the fuck this movie will be about.

  • Justice

    Just go ahead and chalk this up for film of the year right now.

  • Phil

    WOW, that was so moving and I don’t even know what it’s about.

    beautiful cinema

  • Werner

    Looks slick. We get to see Brad Pitt doing his crazy faces and Sean Penn doing his sad faces. If this would be a “guess-the-plot” quiz I’d say: Brad plays a kind of tough and mean father to a boy who grows up to be Sean. There will be lots of redemption and in the end they all meet in heaven. I hope I’m wrong.

  • rjdelight

    *Jay jumps for joy

  • schizopolis

    The trailer reminds me of Tarkovsky’s The Mirror. Cinephiles will be blown away and mystified. The general audience probably bored to death.

  • Justice

    Wait, is this the Malick film that was supposed to have dinosaurs in it? Or is that the next one?

  • Fatbologna

    I’m gonna go ahead and say that Malick is one of the top 5 most distinctive filmmakers of all time. You can always tell it’s one of his films within 10 seconds of seeing any footage. His are the only films that make me swoon… no homo.

  • anton

    Looks beautiful, and I’m sure the visual will be amazing. Let’s hope the story will be strong. Veeery risky to try to make deep and meaningful shit.

  • from the synopsis: “as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father”

    this is the most common and overused concept in film, right up there with female directors making a film “about their vagina”.

    I don’t say that as necessarily a knock against the film as those two concepts are very central to most peoples lives…

    sorry, just the truth…hope it lives up to the hype

  • Cakadoodle

    This looks like an interesting movie that might be good, I’m def seeing this

  • Lenny

    I’m sold

  • TheAllKnowingGod

    Jesus, Malick’s like a production line these days.

  • kyri

    The cinematography a has unique hopperian atmosphere in it, I truly wonder what type of film and filters he uses..

    Malick is truly one of the most interesting directing figures out there.