The New World (2005)

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

My take on this movie is mixed. I loved the story of the movie, the sets, and the cinematography. However, i am not satisfied of the presentation of the move and the way the plot was presented and sometimes the scenes got confusing. Also i am not happy with Will Farrel's acting. Christian bale was classic as usuall. By the way, this is my first review ever, so i might be a bit off on some points.

I really liked this movie a lot. First off, this is an "art-house movie". Most movies done like this are rarely given a blockbuster size budget to make, but this one did. All the performances are excellent, the cinematography is astounding, and although it may seem a bit slow at times, its perfect. Yes, there probably was some historical inaccuracies. But with all the mystery surrounding the relationship between Capt. Smith and ole' Poky, its a perfect opportunity for an interpreted story. I've seen this movie on two separate occasions, sober...and high. When I was high this movie made me cry...it did.

During the 1970s Terrence Malick directed one excellent film, "Badlands", and one masterpiece, "Days of Heaven". After that he seemed to exile himself from the cinema for a long period, and it was twenty years before his third film, "The Thin Red Line", appeared. There then followed another period of silence, this time for seven years, before "The New World" came out in 2005.The film recounts one of the foundation myths of American history, the story of Captain John Smith and the Native American princess Pocahontas. Now although both Smith and Pocahontas were undoubtedly both historical figures, the traditional version of the story, telling how she saved his life and how the two then fell in love, may only be legend. The latter part of the story, however, dealing with her marriage to another English settler, John Rolfe, is based upon historical fact.Even though the romance of the two main figures may only be fiction, albeit a fiction hallowed by long tradition, Malick took great pains over historical details with regard to such matters as costume, weapons, tools and architecture, and shooting took place as close as possible to the site of the original Jamestown settlement in Virginia. He even went so far as to employ a linguist to reconstruct, as far as possible, the now-extinct Powhatan language which would have been spoken by the tribe to which Pocahontas belonged. In other respects, however, the film's accuracy has been faulted, in particular its advocacy of the now- fashionable idea that Native Americans were unselfish, peace-loving noble savages, quite innocent of the vices of the corrupt Old World. (In reality, Pocahontas' father owed his power and exalted position, a position which led the English settlers to regard him as a king rather than a mere chief, to his Powhatan tribe's superiority in warfare over their neighbours).Some changes to the historical record seem to have been made to make the characters more sympathetic. In reality Smith was not commanded by King James I to mount an expedition in search of the North-West Passage, but the scriptwriters must have needed an explanation for his decision to abandon Pocahontas and return to England, leaving word for her that he was dead; in the 17th century a royal command was something you disobeyed at your peril.The film is well acted, with notable performances from Colin Farrell as Smith, Q'orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas and (in a smaller but key role) Christian Bale as Rolfe. (Remarkably, Kilcher was only 14 at the time). The relationship between these three can be described as a sort of love- triangle because, although Pocahontas does not meet Rolfe until after she has been wrongly informed that Smith is dead, she still harbours feelings for her former lover. Both the main characters are torn by inner conflicts, Smith between his love for Pocahontas and his duty towards his king and country, and Pocahontas between her love for Smith and her inability to love her husband, whom she knows to be a good and kind man. Her inner conflict becomes all the greater when she realises that Smith is still alive.As in his first two films, Malick makes effective use of music, with Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23 taking on the role that was played by Orff's "Gassenhauer" in "Badlands" and Saint-Saëns' "Aquarium" in "Days of Heaven". Although there are some attractive shots, I did not, however, find the film as visually attractive as its predecessors, especially "Days of Heaven" which is notable for its strikingly beautiful photography throughout. In my view, however, the film's main fault is that it is overlong and, in places, too slow-moving. Malick's original 150-minute version was later cut to 135 minutes, but even this seemed too long for a story which could have been told in two hours or less. (I understand that there is also a third, 172-minute version, which has never been shown in cinemas).The film did not do well at the Academy Awards, only receiving one nomination, but several critics hailed it as a masterpiece. Some of these praised the film in quite extravagant terms. Mick LaSalle of the San Francisco Chronicle said that it "contains some of the best film- making imaginable – some of it beyond imagining" and John Patterson of the Guardian confessed to literally weeping "tears of exultation". I know how these critics felt. I felt like that on watching "Days of Heaven", but "The New World" was never able to move me in the same way. 7/10

For my second Terrence Malick film (and there aren't too many), I have chosen THE NEW WORLD. It's basically the story of Pocahontas, starting from the settlement of Jamestown when she met John Smith to her later life when she married John Rolfe and moved to England. Of course, being that this is Terrence Malick, the minutiae of historical details aren't really adhered to and the story is told in rather broad strokes, making sure to hit all of the important historical moments but generally being a slower and more contemplative meditation on the themes that its director is interested in. While I was perfectly fine with the abstract story in THE TREE OF LIFE, I felt that it didn't quite work as well here. Still, Malick has crafted a stunningly beautiful film that explores themes of discovery, conflict, the search for happiness, and making the most out of difficult situations. What I thought worked very well was a restrained use of voice-over that served as internal monologues. Absent a lot of dialogue, this provided an essential window into the various characters. I also loved the numerous shots of natural beauty which were expertly captured by Malick's frequent cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezski. As far as acting is concerned, everyone gave a really good performance, although the cast was subordinate to the imagery. The score was also excellent, and in particular I liked the simple piano theme that played when John Smith and Pocahontas were on screen together. However, despite all of this really positive stuff I do think that the film dragged a bit in places and I found my mind wandering somewhat. I suppose it would have helped if this wasn't a story based in historical fact. That way I wouldn't have had expectations about how it should have been presented. Honestly, I would have a preferred a more straightforward telling, but what I got wasn't bad by any stretch of the imagination. Overall, this is a technically superb film that has some interesting observations on life, but it did subvert my expectations a little bit.