The New World is one of those films’s that equivocates to experiencing the most avant-garde of today’s art. Some will manage to appreciate the difficulty of the work, admire the beauty and the subtlety of the piece, while others and perhaps most will simply yawn and complain about its lack of meaning.

Director and writer Terrence Malick, better known for his work on The Thin Red Line, provides an amazingly rich, yet almost distressingly quiet movie about the early settlement of Virginia by John Smith, where he meets Pocahontas and falls in love with her.

What The New World most notably possesses is sheer sublime film work. The moments between Smith and Pocahontas echo of Lord Byron’s Don Juan’s relationship between Juan and Haidee, who epitomizes the romantic notion of the exotic savage that so dominated the early 19th century. Quite simply, Malick is an excellent shower. He does not rely much on dialogue to tell his films, but quite appropriately uses the visual to demonstrate how the two see and respond to each other despite having so little in common.

In an attempt to avoid controversy, The New World stays away from being an epic film about cultural conflicts between the Native Americans and the English. Rather, it aims for a neutral portrayal of both side, and so neither side ends up with any heroic justification.

By shying away from that, Malick is showing that he is trying to make a movie about love between cultures and most certainly staying away from any historical remake of the original events. Malick is more intent on filming a post-modernist Romeo and Juliet than attempting to head down those murky waters. He films Pocahontas with amazing deftness, she exuberates an exotic free nature to her that is captured in the slow elegant camera work. She starts off almost one with nature, like a tree nymph, playing games in the foliage, dancing among the beautiful sunlight. Smith first encounters her, when he is captured by the tribe in an expedition to find the local king of the region. He gradually becomes part of their village as an outsider but a guest during his time, and the two fall in love with few words. The camera captures everything purely by action, a demonstration of Malick’s exceptional skill as a director.

But that is just it, some folks will buy this silent love idea yet others will find it repulsive and absurd. I for one can lean on either side with some justification for both. The New World is undeniably the byproduct of a pretentious director who refused to produce for a mainstream audience and make cuts to his film. The movie at its length of 135 minutes is far too long for a story that tells so little. Near the middle, while the uses of these beautiful short scenes of love are well-shot, it does seem a bit repetitive and overzealous. Malick makes the same point with each one, because he wants us to be able to tie the two characters together, and give them validity for their hopeless emotions for one another. Still, I would say this could have been shortened somewhat.

In addition, because we have Malick at total free reign to make the artistic film of his choosing, The New World does fail to satisfy movie goers in the typical regard. The New World lacks any typical build-up to a noticeable climax, or sweeping moments of drama that have become formulaic of filmmaking today.

This is both a good and bad thing. On one hand, The New World is devoid of overly grandeur scenes that have found their commonplace ever since great epic films such as Braveheart and Lord of the Rings (No widescreen shot of hordes of Native Americans running down a hill to get slaughtered by white men with guns). On the other hand, it lacks a kind of satisfaction that a suspense-driven action-based plot can provide.

I think that most film goers will not get this movie entirely. I was left scratching my head some at the lack of ending, but I found the amazing camera work, use of music and the contrasting themes between two worlds plenty to delve upon despite its lack of plot. Because Pocahontas goes to England near the end of the film, Malick draws two clear distinctions between the natural, bright beauty of nature, and the darker, dreary England. There is beauty to be found in both worlds, but he spends careful time filming the gardens in England, which are all tidy and artificially kept, as opposed to the excessive abundance that thrives in the New World. The transformation is also apparent in Pocahontas, whom despite her free spirit never leaving her, begins to look more and more awkward in the formal dresses, and gardens of England, even though she plays and acts all the same despite them.

Malick acknowledges with quite fairness both worlds, but is focused more on the romanticizing of the natural existence the Native Americans lived in. He quotes Smith’s entries of the new world, how he feels man can start anew in this world of abundance, and his observations of the peaceful Native Americans who live in part with nature.

It is wispy, romantic, artistic and most certainly not for any one expecting an action-paced epic of sorts. The beauty and acceptance of this movie comes from its details. The understanding of love between cultures, the glimpse of a possible look at the New World, provide their own satisfaction, despite its lack of any semblance of story. One either gets this movie and appreciates it, or finds it hopelessly confusing and idealistic.


Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: None of the Above
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older