Tree of Life – Why Dinosaurs?
I was clicking around on LAMB (Large Assoc of Movie Blogs) Forums and came across this video review of Tree Of Life by Anders Wotzke. I agree with what Wotzke says in general and was inspired to answer his question on “why dinosaurs?” I have not yet come across any reviewer who has an explanation for the dinosaurs in this film. So I am offering my insights here.
In thinking about this seemingly tree of life meaning mysterious or incongruous insertion of dinosaurs into this film, I actually found that the dinosaur idea ties the whole film together for me and makes it coherent as long as I leave out the Christian ideas. For those who haven’t seen the film, parts of the beginning consist of gorgeous NASA photos of the universe and Earth. Then we find ourselves in the forest looking at well-CGI’ed images of dinosaurs. The photo above depicts a pivotal scene, for me, where the dinosaur in the background threatens a meek dinosaur and puts his foot on his neck. The emotionality of this scene really grabbed me and I felt the suspense of what might happen next.
The aggressive dinosaur lifted his foot to see what the meek one would do. The meek one submissively stayed put. The aggressor seeing this behavior, seemed to feel comfortable enough to walk away, knowing that he had control. I saw this as an allegory to the introduction of aggressive behavior oppressing those willing to be submissive. Then the film unfolds in flashbacks. Jack, played by Sean Penn, looks back on his life as a boy living with his controlling, oppressive, emotionally abusive father, played by Brad Pitt. The oppressive behavior expressed by his father mirrors that of the aggressive dinosaur. That’s what hit me right away!
Why Dinosaurs? from a conspiracy perspective: The kill-or-be-killed attitude is the reptilian mindset that was introduced on our planet eons ago. It is theorized (by researchers such as Zecharia Sitchin and others) that many different alien races have been on our planet before the beginning of human existence and have tampered with our genetics in good and bad ways. There is a species of aliens called the Reptilians who many researchers on this subject say have been with us all along and probably before our existence. Their evidence is all the reptilian animals (such as snakes, lizards, crocodiles and other reptiles) that inhabit our world; and this includes dinosaurs. It has also been said that our planet is inhabited by people and animals with a lineage from many other planets, hence Earth’s great diversity of flora and fauna. Science says we have a part of our brain called the reptilian brain which is responsible for our fight-or-flight response. According to alien history researchers, this fight-or-flight mindset is the mindset of the Reptilian Race and not our truly innate mindset. This dog-eat-dog world was thrust upon us by the aliens who sought to manipulate and control us. So it could be said that this is the origin of the abuse of power that has been handed down generation after generation.
