Paradise lost in ‘New World’. Malick’s epic treatment of Jamestown colony romance is breathtaking filmmaking.
As a matter of artistic policy, filmmaker Terrence Malick is more interested in what his characters are feeling rather than what they’re doing, which explains how Malick’s “The Thin Red Line” (1999) - billed as a war epic - could so fatally digress into an open-mic poetry jam. Too much reverie, not enough reveille.
In “The New World,” his second effort since returning to filmmaking after a decades-long sabbatical, Malick gets it right. Set in the embryonic days of the Jamestown colony, this is a wondrous story of discovery and romance that rivals Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” in terms of beauty, scope and sheer, soul-emboldening expansiveness. It’s a crisp, dazzling piece of filmmaking that must simply be breathed in.
Colin Farrell recovers nicely from his “Alexander” debacle as John Smith, the English soldier of fortune whose interracial love connection with a certain Powhatan Indian princess helped steer the fate of a continent. Portrayed here as a handsome brooder, Smith is the type of authority-hating rakehell who collects death sentences like nicknames. Upon arriving in Virginia, circa 1607, Smith is about to hang for insubordination when his commanding officer, Capt. Christopher Newport (Christopher Plummer), offers him one last reprieve.
Later, commanding an expedition into Powhatan territory, Smith is captured by “the naturals” and again sentenced to die. This time, his savior is the Indian princess Pocahontas, a captivating creature played by Peruvian-Swedish newcomer Q’Orianka Kilcher. Smith falls in love with Pocahontas and learns the Powhatan language, becoming a valuable lifeline between the starving Jamestown colony and the Powhatan elders, who naively hope the Europeans will simply tire of the new continent and leave.
Framed by Malick’s sparkling pastoral camera work, the love affair between Smith and Pocahontas resonates with biblical implication. Are they Adam and Eve, authors of a new civilization? Or is Smith the snake in the garden, heralding the end of paradise? Ultimately, Pocahontas sacrifices everything for Smith, and Kilcher’s transformation from a girl in perfect, beatific harmony with the unspoiled Virginia coastline to a vacant-eyed, mud-caked exile in Jamestown is both subtle and heartbreaking.
In Malick’s sweepingly emotive script, the Europeans bring with them not just an appetite for conquest, but a brash thirst for self-reliance and liberty. “Man shall not make each other their spoil,” Newport declares, even as tensions mount with the Powhatans.
Composer James Horner’s floating, ethereal score is perfectly suited for a people ascending to godhood, and another falling from it. The last movement of Malick’s colonial symphony involves Pocahontas’ marriage to another settler, John Rolfe (Christian Bale), who slowly, compassionately coaxes the girl out of her funk. A visit to the court of King James follows, a sequence that feels so alien for its marble floors and manicured hedgerows that Pocahontas’ astonishment becomes ours. And we’re astonished by our astonishment.
By immersing us in the tall, windswept grasses and rustic visual poetry of the New World, Malick has made us go native. And what a strange, fantastic revelation it is. Finally, Malick has found the perfect venue for his intimate, dreamlike style, with its whispered voice-overs and hushed reveries: a story in which heartache and yearning helped plant the seeds of a very nation.
‘The New World’
Stars: Colin Farrell, Q’Orianka Kilcher, Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer
Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Terrence Malick
Rating: PG-13 for intense battle sequences
Running time: 2 hours, 16 minutes
Grade: A
