Filed by KOSU News in Art & Life.
December 8, 2012

The weekends on All Things Considered series Movies I’ve Seen A Million Times features filmmakers, actors, writers and directors talking about the movies that they never get tired of watching.

For musician-composer-producer Gustavo Santaolalla, whose credits include The Motorcycle Diaries, Brokeback Mountain and the new film On the Road, which opens in theaters Dec. 21, the movie he could watch a million times is Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life.

Interview Highlights

On watching The Tree of Life for the first time

“When the mother starts talking to God I was like totally, totally sucked in. I mean, I loved it.”

On the themes that the film raises

“I was raised Catholic and this movie, there is a connection, I think, with religion and with spirituality. There’s also the connection with the possibility of redemption, with the possibility of coming to terms with yourself and with the problems that you might have had with your parents. We all, I think, in life go through those moments in which we feel inside of us that mom side and that dad side fighting, you know. I mean, I think all of those things are so human and related to anybody anywhere, it doesn’t matter what culture you are or what religion you believe in.”

On why he loves the movie

“It gives me hope. Every time that I see a movie or I’m exposed to a work of art of this magnitude, I feel regenerated, you know, I feel like I’m happy to be part of this universe. I’m happy to be in this world. So this movie really pushed once again that concept in me.” [Copyright 2012 National Public Radio]