One of them has reportedly already been addressed. At 2 hours and 30 minutes the film had passages so moving and beautiful they brought tears to your eyes. But it also had long, boring stretches filled with very pretty photography, and little dialogue or action to move the story forward. In other words, those parts were boring.

I was told today that the picture opening in theaters on Friday has been trimmed in response to those complaints. Let’s just hope the parts they took out were the boring parts, and not the moving ones.

The other thing that bothers me is the use of a jarring cinematic conceit. Malick, who is as much a cinematographer as he is a screenwriter and director, employs the trick of ending several scenes before they are actually completed by suddenly jumping to a black screen. It’s disconcerting and at one point I wanted to stand up and shout, “Go back! I want to hear what Pocahontas was saying!” Unfortunately, there’s no “Back” button in movie theaters. Guess that’s why DVDs are so popular.

As for the music, James Horner's score is pretty but uninspired. There are no memorable themes that linger in your mind upon exiting the theater, just a sort of generic hum.

Now on to what is so right with this film. First and foremost is the casting of Q'Orianka Kilcher as Pocahontas. Malick could have searched the world over and not found a better Pocahontas, but she really had to work for the role.

When she first heard about the film and approached Malick, Kilcher was just 13-years-old, a tiny little slip of a girl. She was instantly rejected as being too young, but Kilcher, who has an Indian heritage, knew she was meant to play the role.

She went through almost 20 separate auditions and in between, the producers of the movie were desperately casting about for an older actress to play the role. But each time they auditioned another round of actresses, they ended by calling Kilcher back, asking her to do something else...turn cartwheels (the real Pocahontas was famous for this), dance merrily through fields of tall grass, move her hands gracefully, express volumes of emotion without words.

Kilcher delivers one of the most powerful performances I’ve ever seen put on film. It’s almost unbelievable to think this came from a 14-year-old...the depth of emotion, the nuanced facial expressions Kilcher employs are just incredible. And no wonder. To prepare for the role she read everything she could get her hands on about Pocahontas, and that comfort, that intimate knowledge of the character shows. I swear, Kilcher is channeling Pocahontas on screen.

The rest of the cast is stellar as well. As Malick the screenwriter tells it, Colin Ferrell’s John Smith is torn between his love for Pocahontas and his love of adventure. He’s also worried about bringing a native girl back to England, so in the end, he simply abandons her. At that point, Pocahontas has been rejected by her own people for helping the Jamestown settlers, so she literally is without a family or any sort of home.

The settlers take Pocahontas in and try to “civilize” her, but to see the sprightly young girl who ran barefooted through the forest like a gazelle strapped into a woolen corset and hideous leather shoes is one of the film’s most heartbreaking moments. In trying to conform to the English standard of womanhood, perhaps to be more appealing to Captain Smith, Pocahontas loses herself.

Christian Bale plays the aristocrat, John Rolfe. He falls in love with Pocahontas and marries her despite knowing she still pines for Smith. Their relationship is complex but gives rise to some of the films most touching moments. When Pocahontas says simply that Rolfe is like a strong tree and she will shelter in this tree, I felt tears streaming down my face because I think that’s what most women want from men, to be able to shelter in their arms. And yet in this crazy, modern, mixed-up world, most men don’t know how to provide that shelter and most women won’t acknowledge that they need it as much as the air they breathe.

The Jamestown settlement, the costumes, the misery of that first winter, and the initial generosity of the Indians toward their violent new neighbors are all portrayed with stunning accuracy. When the settlers first get off their boats and scoop up handfuls of fat oysters from Chesapeake Bay, they declare they will live like kings. And they could have if they’d simply been content to mine the natural riches Virginia afforded them. But they insisted on mining for gold instead, completely overlooking the fact that money had no value in the New World, and even the world’s largest gold nugget will not keep you from starving if you haven’t bothered to provide any food for yourself come winter.
They left England to escape oppression, but sadly brought that oppression with them to the verdant shores of their new world.

Thought-provoking, intriguing, maddening...Malick’s film is all those things. And it is also well worth seeing.


Recommended:
Yes