This movie will most likely become a classic, in the league of 2001:A Space Odyssey. Not as effective as that cinematic milestone, but just as ambitious. It is also just as confusing: this is a good thing. Aronofsky has given us another tour-de-force, just as intense as “Pi” and “Requiem for a Dream” but centered around a love story.

I am going to discuss a few obvious religious symbols in the movie, and will leave it at that. You should go see it and decide what it all means to you.

Spoilers follow……….

Item 1. The symbology from the Christian Garden of Eden is there. The tree of life is referenced when the tree of the Mayas is introduced. I am only a little bit confused; I thought the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was the one that granted you Eternal Life. I don’t recall there being a separate Tree of Life mentioned in Genesis. Perhaps you Bible scholars can clear this up for me.

Item 2. Buddhism is well represented here. Our astronaut goes into the classic position of repose as he plunges into the dying star. The image and similarity to Buddha is pretty obvious.

Item 3. Hinduism contributes the idea of reincarnation. Here we have a person’s body being absorbed by a tree, and in fact becoming a tree. The only problem I have with this is that as a tree absorbs your body-turned-nutrient, it creates tree DNA in its cells. We don’t have our pinky turn into a branch, as the movie seems to imply. There is no human DNA in the tree material.

Item 4. There is a lot of Catholic imagery (including the cruelty of the Inquisition), but given the time period of Queen Isabella, it makes sense.

Item 5. For those of you that could not get a ticket to Mel Gibson’s “Apocalypto” you get your small dosage of Mayan sacrifice when the Warrior tries to protect the Tree of Life. This is the part of the movie that perplexes me (and elicits further discussion). If the character in the Mayan episode is fictional, how does the astronaut connect to the conquistador across time and space?? Perhaps all of the characters are fictional. Hmmmm……