A Visually Stunning Commentary on Life and Death....

Rating: 10/10 (18 June 2007)

I viewed this film without seeing any detailed trailers, or reading anything really about it. In other words, not really knowing what to expect. I had seen Aronofsky's "Pi," so I knew that there would be some sort of profound inner voyage involved, but beyond that; nothing.
I was not ready for what I saw...in fact, I had to watch the last 15 minutes a second time to be sure that I got it.
As my summary/title of this post states, this is a visual commentary of Aronofsky's views of life and death, and IMHO, his comment is that they are one in the same. One cannot exist without the other; only death can truly open the way for new life and without life, there is no point to death.
If you have not seen the movie, then do not read any further, as my comments will explore the three story arcs in the film.
Each of the story arcs evolve from one universal concept; somebody struggling to save something that is dying. Tomas is trying to save queen and country; Thomas Creo is trying to save his wife, and Tom is trying to save his soul (in a matter of speaking).
In each case, the death in question is required for new growth. The tree is the ultimate symbol of that, as it is the target of Tomas' quest by the queen, it's sap is the catalyst of the serum in Thomas' research, and the dying tree itself is Tom's companion in his journey through the stars to Xibalba.
In "The Conquistador's Quest," (I sort of came up with names for each of the sub-stories) even if Tomas was able to return with the sap from the tree, he would not have been able to save his queen or Spain. This was demonstrated by what happened when he consumed the sap himself. In addition, Tomas' own death clearly demonstrated that fact when the blooms erupted from his body, as he writhed in his death throes. Finally, history shows that the Spanish empire had to fall and as a result, the western world could move on and grow beyond the fall of Spain as a world power.
In examining "Can True Love Die (Thomas and Izzy Creo's story)," several points are illustrated. Thomas fretfully fights to prevent Izzy's death, while Izzy strives to assure that there is meaning to her life. The film shows that Thomas worked hard; almost to the point of forgetting what was truly important in his drive to save Izzy. However, it was her death that galvanized him to move to finish his final work. Izzy wrote the book as it has been said that writing books is a path to immortality, as written words will often outlive the person who wrote them. She asked him to finish the book, as this gave him a stake in her immortality and as such, he too would live forever, and they would live forever together as having written the book. Another point of immortality was illustrated when Thomas took the seed pod and planted it over Izzy's grave. He got the seed pod because he took the time to spend the day with Izzy, despite the fact that his colleagues were waiting for him to operate on the monkey. Some say that one never dies as long as the living keep that person's love and memory alive in their hearts. Sometimes, it is the special moments in one's life that make the most difference and impact in how a person has lived. From what I saw, this happened after future Tom reached back into time and influenced present-day Thomas not to rush off into the operations with the monkey.
Then with "The Journey," there is Tom, who it is assumed is now the immortal Dr. Thomas Creo. He is drifting through space toward Xibalba with a dying tree encased in a force bubble. When Izzy is still alive, she shows him Xibalba and explains its relevance as the Mayan underworld (or "Infra-world" which is the literal translation). I assumed that he was successful in his quest to end death, and at this point he discovered that it did not end the pain of being parted from Izzy. His strive toward ultimate meaning allowed him to touch the souls of both the queen and Izzy, eventually transcend himself, reach out to his past life, and touch his own personal past to see where he went wrong. Upon seeing this, he realized that death is not an end to life, but simply another stage of it. When the star inside of Xibalba reached critical mass and went nova, he died and the two events together caused the tree to bloom with new life.
That is what this is all ultimately about; rebirth and new life arising from death. This film clearly illustrates this in the three conjoined stories. All things are linked by the acts of living and dying.