New World, The [Extended Cut]

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"How much they err,
that think every one which has been at Virginia
understands or knows what Virginia is."

Note: In the following joint review, John and Erik provide their opinions of the movie, with John also writing up the Video, Audio, Extras, and Parting Thoughts.

The Movie According to John:
When my movie buddy and I went to see "The New World" in a theater, he was especially looking forward to it, he being a retired history teacher and the movie being about Captain John Smith, Pocahontas, the settling of Jamestown, and all the familiar people and events we learned about in school. But at 135 minutes, both my buddy and I found it much too long. It seemed to go on forever, lingering over admittedly gorgeous pictorial details at the expense of much dramatic action.

Now, we have the movie reissued on DVD from New Line, and what did the studio do to improve the situation? They've given us "The Extended Cut" at 172 minutes. Uh-huh. Bigger and longer does not always mean better, although in this case it does no real harm. It's still a fascinating movie, and how could it be otherwise from director Terrence Malick? But, man, is it a long stretch to the end!

Terrence Malick is a moviemaker in the Stanley Kubrick mold in that he is meticulous in his filmmaking and only produces a film about every decade or so. To give you an idea, he made "Badlands" in 1973, followed by "Days of Heaven" in 1978, then "The Thin Red Line" in 1998, and "The New World" in 2005. I understand his next project is "The Tree of Life," coming in 2009. If so, it will be a rush job for him. Also like Kubrick, Malick seems more interested in telling his stories visually than through dialogue or characterization. He takes the term "motion pictures" literally. "The New World" is practically a silent movie with music, the imagery bathing one in gorgeous washes of impressionistic colors and dreamy landscapes. Think of Kubrick's "Barry Lyndon."

Malick wrote and directed "The New World," basing his story on historical accounts of the Jamestown settlers. It begins in 1607, with the coming of Englishmen to Virginia, lead by Captain Newport (Christopher Plummer), a reasonable man who is about to hang one of his men for unnamed "mutinous" statements; then he realizes the guy is the only professional soldier among them and might come in handy in foreign, possibly hostile territory. The guy Newport saves from the noose is Captain John Smith (Colin Farrell), who would go on to become the leader of the Jamestown settlement and the lover of the famed native-American princess, Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilcher). Later, about two thirds of the way through the movie, Smith hightails it, and a newcomer to the land, John Rolfe (Christian Bale), replaces him as Pocahontas's romantic interest.

Now, here's the thing: Only a filmmaker of Malick's stature could probably have pulled off so long a film on so slender a storyline. The fact is, there is really little going on in the movie in terms of plot or characters, with only Malick's rather vague notions of the nature of primitive America and what it meant to newcomers and native inhabitants. Basically, Malick has constructed an old-fashioned romance--Ponahontas and the two Johns vying for her affections.

Of course, the romance of the three humans is secondary to the romance of the New World itself and all it symbolizes, which is really Malick's point. In this regard, the film reminded me of Fitzgerald's description of America in the closing passages of "The Great Gatsby," when he says "for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder." It is that sense of wonder--the wonder of the landscape, the wonder of the new dream, the wonder of a new beginning--that permeates the movie. The director even uses the music of Wagner ("Das Rheingold") and Mozart (Piano Concerto No. 23) to underscore the grandeur, tranquility, and wonder of the proceedings.

Malick tells us the natives had no jealousy, no greed, no sense of possession; they were true children of Eden. They appear to live in perfect harmony with nature, serene and unencumbered by materialistic or technological needs. It's an idealistic sentiment, to be sure, worthy of any nineteenth-century Romanticist, but Malick is sensible enough not to portray the Native Americans as entirely innocent, and when bloodshed begins, it is as much their doing as it is the colonists'.

Still, we get a playful, loving, almost childlike Pocahontas; a strangely conflicted yet honorable John Smith; and a remarkably noble John Rolfe. I can only assume that because this is the way history renders the characters, Malick wasn't about to buck tradition.

The first third of the movie recounts the love of Pocahontas for John Smith; the second third recounts the hardships of the settlers and their conflicts with the indigenous population; and the final third recounts the marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe and their trip to England to meet the King and Queen. It's that second part, though, the middle part of the movie, with which I had trouble. It goes by excruciatingly slowly, with murky plot points and a constantly shifting time sequence. Frankly, I was a bit lost in portions of it, the filmmaker explaining so little. He fully expects his visuals to tell the tale, and for the most part they do. But when you get a film this long and a person is starting to doze, the whole thing begins to look like it's passing in slow motion.

Anyway, just feast your eyes and ears on Malick's gorgeous imagery, the authenticity of the costumes and customs of the people, the location shooting in Virginia and England, the dreamy panoramas, and the poetic tapestries of color and music. While you'll find a little of this goes a long way, it sure is pretty.

John's film rating: 6/10

The Movie According to Erik:
Terrence Malick's films are composed with a sense of lyricism that saturates nearly every frame. His twenty-year absence from filmmaking after "Days of Heaven" found almost every major star clamoring to work with the director in his 1998 World War II film "The Thin Red Line." His latest film, "The New World," doesn't come with the same breadth of star cameos, but it does come with the same striking poetic soul. The film is much more accessible than the "The Thin Red Line" and presents imagery that is just as, if not more so, beautiful and mesmerizing.

Colin Farrell plays John Smith with an effective blend of subtle introspection and a lingering romantic pathos. Smith meditates on his passage there, creating a fascinating sense of wonder and excitement. He is a prisoner aboard a British ship arriving in Virginia in 1607, with hopes of establishing a colony. The ship's loyal commander (played wonderfully by Christopher Plummer), releases Smith, who is the only capably trained soldier. Smith is given the opportunity to redeem his apparent mutinous actions by setting out to start an open trade with the tribe of Native Indians, while the remaining settlers stay behind to start work on the colony.

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