Voyage of Time: Life's Journey (2016)

An exploration into our planetary past and a search for humanity's place in the future. With narration by Cate Blanchett.

Director:

Terrence Malick

Writer:

Terrence Malick

Stars:

Cate Blanchett, Jamal Cavil, Maisha Diatta

2 wins & 4 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview:
Cate Blanchett	...	Narrator (voice)
Jamal Cavil	...	Early Human
Maisha Diatta	...	Early Human
Yagazie Emezi	...	Early Human
Daryl James Harris II	...	Early Human
Sebastian Jackson	...	Early Human
Abraham Kosgei	...	Early Human
Runa Lucienne	...	Early Human
Theo Bongani Ndyalvane	...	Early Human (as Theophilus Bongani Ndyalvane)
Jejuan Plair	...	Early Human
Gabi Rojas	...	Early Human
Shaun Ross	...	Early Human
Mechelle Tunstall	...	Early Human
Sanetra Stewart	...	Early Human
Blane E. Warrior II	...	Early Human

Storyline

An exploration into our planetary past and a search for humanity's place in the future. With narration by Cate Blanchett.

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Plot Keywords:

humanity | reenactment | aquatic | evolution | universe | 

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Taglines:

From so simple a beginning.

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Genres:

Documentary | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for a sequence of nudity, and some disturbing images

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [Japan]

Country:

France Germany USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

4 May 2017 (France)

Also Known As:

Voyage of Time

Filming Locations:

Kenya

Company Credits

Production Co:

Sophisticated Films,Plan B Entertainment,LSG Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital Dolby Atmos

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

In order to overcome the visual challenges of the process, Terrence Malick and Dan Glass, visual effects supervisor for the film, created what they called "Skunkworks" for photographic experimentation. According to Glass, these were literally chemical experiments conducted to see how various liquids, dyes, gasses and fluids might behave while being filmed at high-speed. Malick and Glass used everything from gels and glass, to smoke machines and fluid tanks, to create a whole range of effects. One of their main inspirations was the rich work of 19th-century painter Albert Bierstadt, to the extent that Malick referred to their work as "Bierstadting".

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Quotes

[repeated line]
Narrator: Mother.

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Connections

Version of Voyage of Time: The IMAX Experience (2016)

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Soundtracks

Cosmic Beam Take 5 (from The Thin Red Line)
Composed by Francesco Lupica
Performed by Francesco Lupica
Published by T C F Music Publishing, Inc.
Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation

User Reviews

beautiful and boring

One of the previous films of Terrence Malick , The Tree of Life included a long segment about the origins of the Universe. When I saw that movie it was not at all clear to me how that part was related to the rest of the story - a family saga developing around a complicated father - son relationship. Director Malick was so much in love with that part that he decided to abandon any fiction in his latest movie and focus on the cosmology story. The result is Voyage of Time: Life's Journey which is listed as a documentary, although I have a hard time sticking it into that category either. Documentaries have as goal educating, or making statements about history or society or nature. Here we seem to be closer to poetry or sophisticated video art. What counts eventually is not the category but the result.

The film starts with CGI images of the birth of the Universe combined with cosmic video art based on images of the most remote (thus the earliest) galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. It continues with images that describe or reconstruct the birth of Earth, the appearance of water and life, the evolution of plants and animals, the cosmic events (like the asteroid that almost eradicated life on Earth and put an end to the dominance and very existence of the dinosaurs), the emergence of mankind and its evolution towards the mega-cities of today, with their human mosaic and social problems. Most of the images combine fabulous nature filming with computerized effects and they are great, the story telling is visually astounding and has its own logic. I would have loved the film to be only visuals. I would have even accepted the soundtrack although I am not great fan of the world music or Gregorian chants, not when used in New Age messaging. Unfortunately Malick decided to add a spoken commentary and I simply could not make any sense of it. Some incantations and frightened kid questions directed to an over-present Mother (Nature? a feminine God?) were repeated over and over. To be clear, I like and I understand poetry, I respect religious feelings and texts, but the spoken commentary was nothing of these. The fact that Cate Blanchett , an actress that I deeply admired borrowed her voice to read this text, did not help, it just made me mad because I feel that her huge talent was wasted here. The result is just boring, and I surprised myself almost napping despite the beauty on screen.

OK. So Terrence Malick wanted hardly to make a film about the history of the Universe. A Film about Everything. The Film about Everything. Now that you made it, please, Mr. Malick , come back to making the films we loved you for, films like Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line.