The New World (2007)

Terrence Malick film

Director: Terrence Malick

 

As the film begins we see people swimming underwater off the coast of Virginia in 1607. They are native Americans. They watch three majestic ships and wonder who is on board and where they came from. They are unobserved as they remain under the trees on the banks. One man with long hair and a beard is being kept below deck on one of the ships. As the explorers walk on the land, the bearded man seems like he will be hanged. However, the commander of the ship decides to release him. The music of James Horner sounds very much like the beginning of the opera Das Rheingold by Wagner,  which seems like the genesis of a new existence. The opening looks very much like the opening of Malick’s previous film The Thin Red Line.

 

John Smith (Colin Farrell), who was a renegade in England, is dispatched to learn as much as he can about “The Naturals” (Native Americans). Their existence is deeply connected with nature and the earth. They do not trust him at first, but they gradually warm up to this newcomer. The head of the Englishmen (Christopher Plummer)  has returned to his homeland to retrieve more supplies. Other Englishmen were left at the spot where they had landed to establish a settlement.

 

Smith learns that “The Naturals” are a peaceful and resourceful group. The chief allows his daughter (who although she is not named, is assumed to Pocohontas {Q’orianka Kitcher) to instruct Smith about the tribe and she begins to learn English. “The Naturals” expect that the Englishmen will leave the next spring. When they don’t, there is trouble afoot.  Smith and Pocahontas fall in love. He leaves to go back to England, and tells his cohorts to inform her that he drowned. Then she is married to John Rolfe (Christian Bale). Gradually she learns English, and because of her place in the New World, she is ultimately brought back to England for an audience with the Queen.

 

The film has a beautiful innocence to it. Pocahontas is like a child who is growing like an exotic plant, reaching and stretching.

 

It is shot in beautiful areas of woods, rivers, and meadows. As usual in Malick’s work, it is visually striking. The soundtrack (both effects and score) is very important. Listen to the way the film sounds!  In the extended cut, it runs about three hours.