New World review
Greetings everyone!
Well, after debating with myself for the last two weeks I finally decided to go see The New World. The revolved around the fact that I loathed Terrence Malick's last movie, The Thin Red Line. I thought it was a pretentious, disjointed, self-indulgent, interminable piece of shit. I couldn't tell one voice over narrator from the other, and I felt the whole "tone poem" style of film making doesn't work well with a war movie.
So I was very leery of The New World when I saw that it was directed by Malick. I eventually convinced myself that his style (as evinced in TRL) might actually work for a movie involving the early colonization attempts in North America. I was figuring that the (almost) primeval landscape of early 17th century Virginia would be better suited to his unrestrained shots of scenery more than a battle for a hill on Guadalcanal.
And I was right.
The movie begins with just the sounds of trees and gurgling water which slowly gives way to a crescendo of orchestral music as the ships filled with scruffy looking Englishmen hove into view.
I don't really need to synopsize the plot here I don't think, in case you don't know, it is basically the Pocahontas story without any singing or talking animals. Colin Farrell (who hasn't been impressing me much lately) plays John Smith, newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher plays Pocahontas and Christian Bale plays John Rolfe (who marries Pocahontas after Smith bails).
If you saw The Thin Red Line you know that Malick loves to interupt the flow of the story to show you trees and water and grass and stuff, and while in that movie it made me want to claw my eyes out (while the 10' of barbed wire was yanked out of my ass), it really works here. The scenery is *part* of the story, and doesn't seem intrusive as it did in TRL. He also doesn't subject us to any of the infuriating flashbacks that kept popping up during battle scenes in TRL.
The acting was all pretty good (except for some severe overacting by some of the minor characters) and I could actually tell which character was doing the voice-over narration which fills parts of the movie. I am not sure that I have ever seen a film with so little dialogue. Farrell and Kilcher have long scenes (maybe 5+ minutes) where they barely say a word, doing all their acting with their eyes and facial expressions. They bulk of their romance is played out this way, following the two of them as they wander through the forests and meadows, barely touching or speaking, yet conveying great emotion with these little touches.
Christian Bale does a fine job as Rolfe, but here the film falters just a wee bit. Malick never really shows how Rolfe has come to fall in love with Pocahontas, she just seems quiet and withdrawn, and while Kilcher is certainly lovely to look at, none of the emotional depth you sensed going on with Smith is evident when Rolfe first meets her (she is living in the Jamestown fort after being sent away by her father and she thinks that Smith is dead). There is one scene where Rolfe and Pocahontas are wandering through a meadow and his narration has him asking himself what moves her, and she happens to state at that moment "I like grass". He looks at her like she has made some earthshatteringly insightful comment. Of course, there is always the chance that he just thought she was beautiful, and that was enough.
The film ends back in England where Pocahontas has had a reception with King James and became a celebrity in London, only to die of some disease. After that the same overture of music plays and then fades out to the sounds of water and creaking trees.
I found the movie a little slow (not endless like TRL) in places, but the story actually moved along in a coherent fashion and the acting was fine, and the scenery gorgeous. If you can handle a slow movie, I can actually advocate seeing this if you have 2.5 hours to spare.
Oh, and having always been a fan of the painting of Pocahontas:
I thought that Kilcher looked incredible in the same outfit (of course I can't find a frigging pic of it from the movie, how annoying).
Also I got a bit of a chub from some actual musket and pike battle action. The Englishmen deploy a line of pikemen and a following line of musketeers (with matchlocks!!!!!!). Until that moment I had forgotten that it was taking place in the very early 1600's.
Well, after debating with myself for the last two weeks I finally decided to go see The New World. The revolved around the fact that I loathed Terrence Malick's last movie, The Thin Red Line. I thought it was a pretentious, disjointed, self-indulgent, interminable piece of shit. I couldn't tell one voice over narrator from the other, and I felt the whole "tone poem" style of film making doesn't work well with a war movie.
So I was very leery of The New World when I saw that it was directed by Malick. I eventually convinced myself that his style (as evinced in TRL) might actually work for a movie involving the early colonization attempts in North America. I was figuring that the (almost) primeval landscape of early 17th century Virginia would be better suited to his unrestrained shots of scenery more than a battle for a hill on Guadalcanal.
And I was right.
The movie begins with just the sounds of trees and gurgling water which slowly gives way to a crescendo of orchestral music as the ships filled with scruffy looking Englishmen hove into view.
I don't really need to synopsize the plot here I don't think, in case you don't know, it is basically the Pocahontas story without any singing or talking animals. Colin Farrell (who hasn't been impressing me much lately) plays John Smith, newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher plays Pocahontas and Christian Bale plays John Rolfe (who marries Pocahontas after Smith bails).
If you saw The Thin Red Line you know that Malick loves to interupt the flow of the story to show you trees and water and grass and stuff, and while in that movie it made me want to claw my eyes out (while the 10' of barbed wire was yanked out of my ass), it really works here. The scenery is *part* of the story, and doesn't seem intrusive as it did in TRL. He also doesn't subject us to any of the infuriating flashbacks that kept popping up during battle scenes in TRL.
The acting was all pretty good (except for some severe overacting by some of the minor characters) and I could actually tell which character was doing the voice-over narration which fills parts of the movie. I am not sure that I have ever seen a film with so little dialogue. Farrell and Kilcher have long scenes (maybe 5+ minutes) where they barely say a word, doing all their acting with their eyes and facial expressions. They bulk of their romance is played out this way, following the two of them as they wander through the forests and meadows, barely touching or speaking, yet conveying great emotion with these little touches.
Christian Bale does a fine job as Rolfe, but here the film falters just a wee bit. Malick never really shows how Rolfe has come to fall in love with Pocahontas, she just seems quiet and withdrawn, and while Kilcher is certainly lovely to look at, none of the emotional depth you sensed going on with Smith is evident when Rolfe first meets her (she is living in the Jamestown fort after being sent away by her father and she thinks that Smith is dead). There is one scene where Rolfe and Pocahontas are wandering through a meadow and his narration has him asking himself what moves her, and she happens to state at that moment "I like grass". He looks at her like she has made some earthshatteringly insightful comment. Of course, there is always the chance that he just thought she was beautiful, and that was enough.
The film ends back in England where Pocahontas has had a reception with King James and became a celebrity in London, only to die of some disease. After that the same overture of music plays and then fades out to the sounds of water and creaking trees.
I found the movie a little slow (not endless like TRL) in places, but the story actually moved along in a coherent fashion and the acting was fine, and the scenery gorgeous. If you can handle a slow movie, I can actually advocate seeing this if you have 2.5 hours to spare.
Oh, and having always been a fan of the painting of Pocahontas:
I thought that Kilcher looked incredible in the same outfit (of course I can't find a frigging pic of it from the movie, how annoying).
Also I got a bit of a chub from some actual musket and pike battle action. The Englishmen deploy a line of pikemen and a following line of musketeers (with matchlocks!!!!!!). Until that moment I had forgotten that it was taking place in the very early 1600's.