Narrative and Experiment, Religion and Politics in Terrence Malicks The Tree of Life

Abstract

While Terrence Malick’s 2011 film The Tree of Life is ordinarily analyzed in light of its Christian—and implicitly Augustinian—theological rationale, I argue here for the importance of analyzing The Tree of Life for its connection to the Emersonian artistic heritage. In so doing, I elucidate the film’s unique political vision, a vision that emphasizes experimentalism and is allied with American avant-garde cinema. That vision, furthermore, carries with it an awareness of the differences and historical conflicts between the Augustinian and Emersonian traditions in American politics, as well as insights into these two political strains’ prospects for rapprochement, particularly in regard to how avowed religionists and secularists might cooperate on contemporary environmental concerns

Keywords

• terrence malick
• the tree of life
• religion
• politics
• augustinian theology
• ralph waldo emerson
• emersonianism