Richard Maurer - Movie Blog 1: The Fountain

Well, the first few times I saw this movie I was unimpressed and felt that it “insisted upon itself” to quote Family Guy. However, after becoming ill and bed ridden for a few days (and unable to find the remote), I was forced to watch this movie over and over on HBO. I must say, that after about the third viewing I truly appreciated the gorgeous imagery. The movie revolves around three stories - one each from the past, present, and future – paralleling men in hopeless pursuit of eternity with their love. A conquistador in searches for the tree of life in the Mayan / Aztec Empire to save his queen (some of the best visuals are in this storyline); a medical researcher works with various plants in hopes of a cure that will save his dying wife; a space traveler ascends with an aged tree encapsulated within a bubble toward a dying star (Xibalba) seeking to be reunited with his beloved. The Fountain demonstrates life and death across many scales, from the death of one’s self, to the death of a loved one, to the death of stars. All of these lives cycle through death, rebirth, and completion… transcendence to another form of being. However, it takes time to accept that death leads to life (although not necessarily as we know it), “that death is the road to awe,” and the lead character, in refusing to accept death as natural and necessary, fights against it seeking out a cure to its inevitability. However, in the end he comes to accept death, and in so doing is finally reunited with his lost love.