# Mother. Father. Always you wrestle inside me.

> Kartina Richardson on Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, the voluptuous bulging energy of the film and how to approach its CGI dinosaurs with tenderness.

- Page: https://www.elasticspace.com/2011/07/mother-father-always-you-wrestle-inside-me/
- Author: Timo Arnall (https://www.elasticspace.com/)
- Section: Notes (https://www.elasticspace.com/notes/)
- Published: 2011-07-10
- Updated: 2026-07-05
- Tags: Childhood, Cinematography, Film, Photography, Review, Terrence Malick
- Site map for agents: https://www.elasticspace.com/llms.txt

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![Hunter McCracken as the young Jack, in close-up against soft greenery, light catching one side of his face. From The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick, 2011.](https://www.elasticspace.com/images/mother-father-always-you-wrestle-inside-me/tree-of-life-still-1.jpg)

*Hunter McCracken as the young Jack. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011).*

> A truth that releases a waterfall of emotion. It is this energy that propels us through *The Tree of Life*. A voluptuous, bulging energy shaped and encouraged by sweeping camera movement, ultra wide lenses, lyrical blocking, the safe-harbor of Jessica Chastain’s face, and the vacillation in Hunter McCracken’s. These combine to create scenes that perfectly capture the rapturous feelings of childhood. Sensations evoked when light & dark entwine, and our instinctual knowledge that these things are the same.

![A father and his son walk away from camera down a quiet neighbourhood street at sunset. The father has his hand on the back of the boy's neck. A 1950s house and a wide oak frame the scene; sun-flare comes through the trees ahead. From The Tree of Life, Terrence Malick, 2011.](https://www.elasticspace.com/images/mother-father-always-you-wrestle-inside-me/tree-of-life-still-2.jpg)

*The Father (Brad Pitt) walking with the young Jack. The Tree of Life (Terrence Malick, 2011), shot in Waco, Texas.*

And on how to approach the film:

> A moment long enough for me to relax, and I was suddenly taken by a feeling of great tenderness and calm. I don’t completely understand why I felt this, but the inclusion of these CGI dinosaurs struck me as an particularly affectionate and loving decision. Terrence Malick believes in his audiences, and has faith that we *also* can believe. It’s the feeling of your mother brushing the hair off your forehead as she tells you a bedtime story. You protest because she’s changed a part of the usual tale, or it’s not the way you want it to be, but smiling, she says “Shhh shhh. Just listen.”

From the brilliant [Kartina Richardson](http://www.mirrorfilm.org/2011/06/03/the-tree-of-life/).