The Fountain

[Zadius Sky]

I read an interview with Aronofsky where he explained the three periods as the ego (past, the physical force), the Id (present time, the scientific) and the Super-ego (The future (?),The spiritual).

I am uncertain if Gurdjieff's "Law of Three" could be applied to the understanding of this intriguing film. Specifically, the process of transformation that required the three actions of affirmation, denial, and reconciliation. Affirmation = "Oath." Denial = "Rejecting." Reconciliation = "Healing."

 

[Andrian]

I saw the movie 4-5 times and everytime i watch it i was so impressed and touched spiritually that at the end of the movie i even cryed a little.
It had an strong effect on me ,very beauteful made movie ,strong emotional touch,spiritual touch, symbolism.
I also recommand it to all who haven't see it yet ,

 

[melatonin]

I love this film.
Im pretty sure the bark hes ingesting is Iboga. People who flood on iboga have visions of past lives, amongst other things. I wonder if that was the reason he saw his girlfriend in a past life with him in the film.
The soundtrack to this film is also brilliant.

 

[Aiming]

It spoke to me on a more emotional than intellectual level, and when it was over – it was far too short! – I felt uplifted and clear. Is it a right-brain film (as opposed to left-brain)? It certainly speaks in a language of symbols, and maybe that is how it works, symbols being the language of the right side of the brain. I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it.

This movie also left me in an uplifted and clear state and I enjoyed it very much that it is speaking in right-brain language. Although I was also a little disturbed about the main character simply not getting it and that he was so obsessed about material/outside things, as Anart has pointed out already. Had it not been for these elements, it would've been quite perfect -- but I do recommend it in any case. I've recently wanted to watch it again, and have only now found this thread, thanks for reviving it, melatonin.

 

[Green_Manalishi]

I saw it for the second time to see if what i thought the first time around still remained. And it did.

For me it was more imbued with Buddhist, or Eastern religious elements, because i saw the story as someone who was trying to integrate past lives memories, traumas while in some kind of meditation, out of body experience, or whatever.

Although I was also a little disturbed about the main character simply not getting it and that he was so obsessed about material/outside things, as Anart has pointed out already

I think that was exactly what he had to overcome and understand, that was the trauma perhaps.

Traveling through deep space as a 26th century astronaut

I don't know from where Adaryn got that synopsis, but did the person who wrote that synopsis really saw the film? Or did i missed something that indicated we was an astronaut in the 26th century? :)

 

[Aiming]

Although I was also a little disturbed about the main character simply not getting it and that he was so obsessed about material/outside things, as Anart has pointed out already

I think that was exactly what he had to overcome and understand, that was the trauma perhaps.

Okay, but if that was the thing he had to overcome then he still didn't within the course of the movie, because he ended up ingesting something (don't remember what) of what he thought would give him 'salvation' and then he morphed into a plant. I'd say 'lesson not learned'. Or did I get that wrong?

 

[melatonin]

Ive just watched this again. AMAZING! (caps used for effect).
The feeling i got watching this again was that the inpending loss of wife triggered his own fear of mortality. (something she had already faced). The part of him that was protecting him for so long was broken apart as he watched his wife slowly die.
His wife dying freed him from his internal prison, but i also got a feeling that it made the death of his wife so much harder to take. Like he had wished he could of shared that feeling with her being alive.
Such a great film about love&loss.

 

[Green_Manalishi]

Okay, but if that was the thing he had to overcome then he still didn't within the course of the movie, because he ended up ingesting something (don't remember what) of what he thought would give him 'salvation' and then he morphed into a plant. I'd say 'lesson not learned'. Or did I get that wrong?

Don't know if you got it right or wrong, you know how movies are, layers and multiple interpretations, not to mention our lack of objectivity as Humans in our present state, but i digress. ;)

Ok, here is how i interpreted that scene where the he drinks the sap of the tree of life and how it ties to the rest. When he ingested the sap it was in the first life depicted in the movie as a conquistador. When he drank the sap, blinded with avarice thinking he would get eternal life he ended up transforming into grass and flowers, to me in an allusion, that in the Universe nothing is eternal, everything cycles. That was what he had to learn, because in the second life as a doctor he also wanted to conquer death through some kind of medicine.

If you remember the first time the conquistador life was showed he was regressing to it and could not get pass the part where the Mayan priest was about to strike him, which was an event just before the tree of episode. So tying it up when he managed to regress to the the tree of life sap episode and saw what happened he finally understood that in the Universe everything goes in cycles there is nothing like eternal life, nothing is permanent, and was finally shoot up to i don't know where. :D

Just would like to add that for me, and having in mind the way i interpreted it, the episode of the tree of life was very beautiful metaphor for the cycling nature of the Universe because he drank from a tree and was transformed into a plant himself, making a circle from tree to plant.

 

[3DStudent]

I watched this the other week. I had higher expectations for it, seeing that the trailer looked really cool. To me, the movie was about the main character coming to terms with death, of others and his own. I think it's something we should look at carefully in the present times, and I'm reminded of G saying something like you should think about yourself being dead.

Traveling through deep space as a 26th century astronaut

I don't know from where Adaryn got that synopsis, but did the person who wrote that synopsis really saw the film? Or did i missed something that indicated we was an astronaut in the 26th century? :)

The 26th century is mentioned in this trailer.

 

[Green_Manalishi]

The 26th century is mentioned in this trailer.

True. I hadn't seen that trailer. But still think that the movie does not hint that, but that is a small detail.

I think what G said was that we should always have in mind that death may be around the corner, and by this get things Done because that thought would press us to Do.

 

[mcb]

I watched this movie last night. It brought many things to mind. To me, the value of watching this kind of movie is in what it stirs up (in me), what I notice, and what adjustments I make from that. Understanding the story itself is not as important.

I found that the story came together in my mind this morning. I didn't quite guess the 26th-century space traveler part (I was close), but then I didn't see the trailer. If you have seen the movie and are still trying to understand the story, look here.

 

[Scribblenauts]

for any movie if you are going to understand it more deeply you should always consider the soundtrack (the names of the tracks, the emotional moods .. etc) this really helps

1- the Mayan myth
think of consciousness and matter (not the physical matter per se but rather any state of consciousness that is "bound" by "limits / restrictions" because after all the infinite consciousness in order to manifest itself needed to put some "restrictions" on its limitlessness (through the various levels / layers / states of existence ... etc ), that's the Mayan creation myth (in fact that's what all the ancient creation myths are about .. an ultimate god = infinite consciousness, that is managed or controlled, betrayed, killed, dead, buried, imprisoned, chained .. whatever, by lesser gods = infinite consciousness but under certain limits / restrictions)
in our case the Mayan, we have the first father "sacrifice"

- his "body" became the "tree's roots", they "spread" and formed the "earth" = primordial matter throughout the universe

- his "soul" became the "branches", "rising up", forming the "sky" = heavenly bodies (all atoms and bodies as well, by mastering or manipulating laws and primordial matter in various ways)

- all that remained was first father's "head", his "children" hung it in the "heavens", creating "xibalba" = the gates of consciousness levels to make sure each consciousness unite remain in its proper level of restrictions, thus evolved consciousness unites may pass (ascend) while restricted consciousness unites remain bound on the same level (reincarnate for lack of a better term)

- the Mayans called it xibalba
- xibalba?
- it was their underworld, the place the dead "souls"* go to be reborn.
*souls and not bodies




it says in the dictionary that heavens is the place where god and the angels dwell (thus heavens is the layers separated by "restrictions", that means heavens is part of every creature (that's what is meant by the term "temple / church" for the temple is dwelling place of the sacred, thus every creature is a temple), only some creatures can travel between these layers by "overcoming" / "mastering" those restrictions, realizing that they are, after all, the infinite consciousness (evolving to some extent or another of course, depending on their level of knowledge and awareness, and they take on different bodies of different matter on each layer), while others can't (they actually can, but only through what we call death)

on this physical level of existence, man is the microcosm, the image of the infinite consciousness, the temple (or to be more exact "the combination of all the temples") where consciousness dwells "fully" = both infinite and finite / restricted, thus death for every evolved human is in fact a resemblance for the first father sacrifice, it's like "the beginning of a new cycle in creation"

- So what do you think?
- about?
- that idea, death as an act of creation ?

*******
2- Spain
this is in fact a depiction of our reality, the Queen "seeking the truth", and the Inquisitor "fearing the truth, isolating her and running amok in her kingdom", the Conquistador "the brave and loyal truth seeker for salvation", the flaming sword "the barrier/s" (with his skill, fire, light, and .. wound), the tree of life = truth = immortality = the one = the infinite all "the only immortal"*

* the tree of life that in fact depends on the first father sacrifice, first father can't live in his human form without killing the tree of life, only "together" they can live forever, so being the tree of life itself is essential for first father to 1- be immortal, 2- and keep the tree of life at the same time, so he has to sacrifice the selfish story of his life and "finish it" else they both dies , so he gives up seeking immortality through being selfish, so he's kind of ordered the flaming sword = the barrier not to stand in the way of the conquistador (those who seek the tree of life, who are willing to sacrifice themselves to save Spain)

the tree of life heals the conquistador's "wound", then he drinks from the tree of life and his soul becomes "one with the first father" = "immortal, for to be immortal you have to become one with the first father in soul and body, there is no other way", thus his physical form is "transformed" so his body ceases to exist as conquistador and becomes "one with the body of the first father" = "earth"

the last man (which is also the first father sacrificing himself at the end, so the first is the last, the alpha and omega, infinite cycles, and the movie is talking about this idea, how the first becomes the last (through the quest for "immortality", which is the main purpose of the sacrifice to become the tree of life)

so the first father had to stop the flaming sword (the barrier from "killing" the conquistador "the brave and loyal truth seeker for salvation", we notice that the conquistador only gets wounded before the first father interference) in order for the first father to be able to "finish" the selfish story and become the tree of life to live forever




well I think I missed a couple of points here, but these should do though it all might seem to be nonsense :)

 

[luke wilson]

Just saw this movie.

My take on it was that of loss. In all incarnations he had to deal with inevitable loss. He struggled with this, trying desperately to find a solution. It was sad. Then in the end, I saw it as the continuation of life after that loss. Life goes on. I didn't see salvation, in the sense of, finding the answers he was looking for. I saw ultimately coming to peace with the whole process. Sort of like a surrender once the inevitable passes. When he drunk from the sap and was overcome by plants, I saw that as the sheer power of nature, of life.

To me, what I took from the movie was the inevitability of life and what will happen, whatever it is. In all and everything, we have to come to peace with the events in our lives, no matter how tragic.

 

[Divide by Zero]

Luke that was a good analysis!

I just saw the movie again tonight and I can't believe how much I missed from it when I saw it years ago.


Drinking from the tree which gave him immortality in another sense was quite interesting.
It reminded me of how the C's answer questions trying not to violate free will, but also to warn in some subtle way. "You don't always get what you want, but sometimes you get what you need!"
From that, it was a lesson that immortality is not living forever in this same form.

I suppose if aligned with STS, he would be drunk with power to get exactly what he wants- wishful thinking. Who knows, the tree might die off too and curse one person with immortality?
I'm just wondering about the mythology of those who seek immortality on earth.

A very thought provoking and teary movie- with a beautiful soundtrack!

 

[Cleo]

A very thought provoking and teary movie- with a beautiful soundtrack!

Agree. The composer is Clint Mansell, interestingly he was also the composer for one of Aronofsky's other films, Requiem for a Dream. I watched this movie in late 2013, and remember it being impactful.