Page One: “The Tree of Life” (2011)

Written by Terrence Malick

The movie version of the opening:

In the movie, there is this voiceover narration along with shots which provide specific images to flesh out the opening scene:

Brother… Mother… It was they who led me to your door. A man’s heart has heard two ways through life. The way of nature. And the way of grace. You have to choose which one you’ll follow. Grace doesn’t try to please itself. It accepts being slighted, forgotten, disliked… It accepts insults and injuries. Nature only wants to please itself. Get others to please it too. It likes to lord it over them. To have its own way. It finds reasons to be unhappy. When all the world is shining around it. And love is smiling through all things. They taught us, that no one who loves the way of grace, ever comes to a bad end. I will be true to you. Whatever comes…

Note: If you are a filmmaker with the reputation of a Terence Malick, you can write paragraphs like this in your screenplay:

However, it is novelistic in the extreme, an extended foray into the story’s inner world and a character’s internal dynamics. While there is no rule against this type of writing, the world of a screenplay is fundamentally an externalized reality (action and dialogue). Therefore, while can occasionally comment on a character’s inner state of being, the path of wisdom is to do that in a judicious manner.

You may download the screenplay here.

FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!

Page One is a daily Go Into The Story series featuring the first page of notable movie scripts from the classic era to contemporary times. Comparing them is an excellent way to study a variety of writing styles and see how professional writers start a story.

For more Page One posts, go here.