At this point in life you’ve already discovered that we need trees, right? Well they’re more than just carbon dioxide filters that help sustain life, they’re also perfect additions to films as well. Think about all the movies you’ve ever seen in your life and then think about the roles the trees might have played. Granted, there are a lot where the trees are, for the most part, just trees. They provide scenery, setting, and often times a point of reflection that doesn’t need any dialogue to convey a special meaning. But now and again there are times when trees become integral to the story and are thus something more than what they appear.
Here’s just a few movies in which trees were made to do something more than look enigmatic in their silence.
5. The Apple Trees – Wizard of Oz
Admit it, you don’t think much about taking an apple from a tree when you see one. But think about if the tree could talk, think, and take offense at you plucking something from their branches? Can you even imagine how much it might hurt to get slapped by a tree with a mind of its own? Plus think about it, taking that fruit is essentially like taking a piece of your own body in a way, so it stands to reason that plucking an apple from a tree might not feel the same after watching this movie.
4. Demon Tree – Poltergeist
The manner in which some trees grow can be just flat out spooky. The different ways they stretch towards the sun and twist and turn as they reach ever skyward can produce some truly nightmare-inducing sights that might be taken the wrong way. In this film though Robbie was fairly accurate when he said the tree was looking at him, that it knew where he lived. Well, maybe to the first but obviously yes on the second. If it’s looking at you Robbie, then yes, it knows where you live.
3. Grandmother Willow – Pocahontas
It’d be nice if we could all take advice from the trees, and if they could possibly give us the type of advice that we really need. Grandmother Willow was a valued and trusted friend and more than that, she’s the type of influence that’s as unobtrusive but inherently helpful as one can be.
2. Treebeard – Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
If you’re looking for snap decisions this is not the guy to come to. Keep in mind trees would obviously be a very patient lot if they were sentient like humans. They tend to live for decades if not centuries if they are left alone, and in that time they don’t really go anywhere. Their lives are watching the sun rise then fall and observing the goings on of the forest around them. If they’re like Treebeard they might move about occasionally, but by the time they decide to move and then get where they’re going an entire generation might have grown and passed on.
1. The Tree of Souls – Avatar
This tree is just awesome because it is able to tap into what amounts to the central nervous system of Pandora. Recall Neytiri telling Jake that the great mother would not take sides. It would appear during the final battle that she might have changed her mind just a bit, and not a second too soon.
Trees have been more than just a background setting in many films, and why not? Just because they’re trees doesn’t mean they have to be boring.
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