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	The New World
	Terrence Malick Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, Q'Orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Pryce, David Thewlis, Irene Bedard, Ben Chaplin, Roger Rees, August Schellenberg, Wes Studi, Noah Taylor 2005		In contrast to the sizable critical acclaim for his body of work, writer/director Terrence Malick is one of the least prolific filmmakers of the past few decades. His World War II epic "The Thin Red Line," made in 1998, was only his third full-length movie, and it was released 20 years after his second, 1978's "Days of Heaven." The wait for his fourth feature, "The New World," was a relatively brief seven years, but worth any anticipation. It's a gorgeous-to-regard, sometimes brutal retelling of the mythical romance and intertwined fates of an historical couple: 17th-century Virginia colonist John Smith and Native American teen princess Pocahontas. Linked by quiet passages that revel in the beauty of the setting, there's a stately, mournful quality to much of the film's light-on-dialogue, impressionistic narrative. It begins with a first encounter between the crew of a British ship, dropping anchor off the coast of the unexplored North American continent, and the natives who lived there in harmony with nature. Played with turbulent gusto by Colin Farrell, crewman Smith is a brigand, and his mutinous ways place him in conflict with the expedition's commander (Christopher Plummer). Smith is sent to make contact with the local tribe, is captured, and is saved from death by an infatuated Pocahontas (newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher, whose inexperience serves her character's naïve, enigmatic persona). From that point, "The New World" is more concerned with Pocahontas than anyone else: with her and Smith, her subsequent relationship to another English settler (Christian Bale), and her unlikely destiny. A lengthy mood piece rather than a standard drama, this elegy for lost innocence is never less than mesmerizing.


	Sunday, November 17, 2024





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