The New World |  | Director: Terrence Malick
Actors: Colin Farrell, Q'Orianka Kilcher, Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, August Schellenberg
Category: DVD
This item is no longer available
Rating:  328 reviews
Format: NTSC
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
ASIN: B00005JO1O
Theatrical Release Date: January 20, 2006
| |
| Similar Items:
| |
| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The legend of Pocahontas and John Smith receives a luminous and essential retelling by maverick filmmaker Terrence Malick. The facts of Virginia's first white settlers, circa 1607, have been told for eons and fortified by Disney's animated films: explorer Smith (Colin Farrell) and the Native American princess (newcomer Q'orianka Kilcher) bond when the two cultures meet, a flashpoint of curiosity and war lapping interchangeably at the shores of the new continent. Malick, who took a twenty year break between his second and third films (Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line), is a master of film poetry; the film washes over you, with minimal dialogue (you see characters speak on camera for less than a quarter of the film). The rest of the words are a stream-of-consciousness narration--a technique Malick has used before but never to such degree, creating a movie you feel more than watch. The film's beauty (shot in Virginia by Emmanuel Lubezki) and production design (by Jack Fisk) seems very organic, and in fact, organic is a great label for the movie as a whole, from the dreadful conditions of early Jamestown (it makes you wonder why Englishman would want to live there) to the luminescent love story. Malick is blessed with a cast that includes Wes Studi, August Schellenberg, Christopher Plummer, and Christian Bale (who, curiously, was also in the Disney production). Fourteen-year-old Kilcher, the soul of the film, is an amazing find, and Farrell, so often tagged as the next big thing, delivers his first exceptional performance since his stunning debut in Tigerland. James Horner provides a fine score, but is overshadowed by a Mozart concerto and a recurring prelude from Wagner's Das Rheingold, a scrumptious weaving of horns fit to fuel the gentle intoxication of this film. Note: the film was initially 150 minutes, and then trimmed to 135 by Malick before the regular theatrical run. It was also the first film shot in 65mm since Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. --Doug Thomas
|
| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 328
 Artful? Yes. Entertaining? Well... February 22, 2010
Jason (Backwater, Alabama)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Over an hour and a half into the movie, John Rolfe (Bale) drones, "Hours pass; she speaks no words," and therein lies the problem. Like the slowly growing and mostly dying crops that did in the settlers of Jamestown, this movie dies because of malnutrition. There's far too little Last of the Mohicans, and far too many panoramic views of a cinematographer's concept of early American wilderness (beautifully rendered) and indigenous buttocks. The romance between John Smith (Farrell) and Pocahontas (Kilcher) is slower than a Special Olympic hurdler, and far too many scenes pass without a spoken word or consequential sound. Honestly, the dialogue in this film must have been amazingly easy to memorize for the cast, because most of the long stretches of speaking parts seem to be done as voiceovers off camera. And Colin Farrell STILL managed to utter his lines like he had a mouth full of marbles. Aggravating is not a strong enough word, and the rest of the cast - aside from Christian Bale - is filled up of ambiguous Indians and random serfs.
I appreciate the attempt at an authentic recreation and the historical significance of the story, but Pocahontas, much like the makers of this movie, made multiple mistakes, like I did when I decided to watch this...but hindsight is 20/20, I guess.
Simply put, this is a watch once kind of movie. Add in the historical inaccuracies, and I'd rather watch corn grow than sit through another viewing.
Really poor editing January 30, 2010
D. J. Nardi (Washington, DC)
I like historical epics generally, but this was a really poorly edited film. The story is hard to follow and some scenes seem to intrude on the story. There's very little context and the story isn't very clear. At some points, I was confused as to what was actually happening or why something did happen (for example, why was John Smith alone and captured in the first place?). It seems like the editing team had trouble producing a solid movie with the footage given, so tried to make it more abstract in some places - to the detriment of the viewer.
At points, the characters narrate their thoughts, but rather than providing useful context this gets annoying. They simply recite their emotions, which are surprisingly bland (with John Smith calling the Native Americans perfect and in complete harmony). Such emotions would have been better explored through acting and interaction between the characters, rather than simply narrating them. And the soundtrack - very disappointing.
The only bright spot was the acting - Q'orianka Kilcher played a decent Pocahontas. Colin Farrell wasn't bad as John Smith either, but not too inspiring.
Hopefully the next remake of the story of Jamestown will do it right.
 I could not bear to watch January 15, 2010
R. Attila (Hungary)
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
I loved the setting of this film. Loved its pace, adored the
photography, and the lack of conversation. But there came a point when
I just could not bear to watch any further.
I've seen lots of films about poorly treated people. Sex-slave
documentaries that wrench your heart, war movies, concentration camps
etc. Never had a problem watching a film to the end. But the thought
and look of this healthy young girl having to live among the savage
Brits absolutely shattered me, and I needed to stop watching after
about 90 minutes. I was too furious and distressed to take it.
I was just as furious about captain Smith's reluctance to follow his
heart.
 You Can't Fool Me, Man! January 13, 2010
Yasha Banana
2 out of 16 found this review helpful
I, Yasha Banana, your 96-year-old film reviewer, am glad already to know that I'm not a complete masochist.
Meaning: I turned this movie off before it was over. (Good for me!) It was so boring and so tedious it gave me a pain. Over here; and over there. And a heartburn. Oy, such a heartburn you wouldn't believe. And don't tell me it was the pastrami I brought to the movie theatre.
The only other movie I saw by this goyim fellow Terence Malick -- Mistah Feency Schmeency Movie Director -- was "The Thin Red Line," which I, Yasha Banana, liked very much. The problem with this movie, however, "The New World," is that, for one thing, it's as though you're seeing a spinoff of "The Thin Red Line" -- the voiceover, the similarity in music, the fact that in both movies a Westernized soldier breaks away from his militaristic, warrior-oriented life and finds peace and happiness living in a delightful, harmonious, non-European counterculture. ...
I should be so lucky. ... Instead the meshugener who lives next door plays old Trini Lopez records all night long on his victrola. Drives me crazy. So where's *my* counterculture getaway already?
Nah, this movie isn't for me. I like a movie that keeps moving. For example, "Singing in the Rain." Now there was, believe you me, *some* movie. Ho-boy! Bing-bang-boom, one scene after another. Who's over here, who's over there. Lots of action, lots of gab, gals kicking their legs over their heads.
So why not in this movie? It's supposed to be Virginia, right? It rains there, doesn't it? And what? -- Colin Farrell can't teach the Indians gals to kick their legs over their heads?
I don't say he has to get an umbrella and prance around like Gene Kelly or Richard Simmons, but move it, boychick, move it!
Instead he droops, he drags, he kvetches. Sort of like my third wife on our honeymoon. I said "I do" and she said, "Turn off the light, I'm exhausted."
I want *action,* man! I want someone to rush up to Colin Farrell and say something like: "Thank God you're not Colin Powell!" Or quick, the hippopotamuses are escaping! Man the lifeboats!"
See, then you don't know what's gonna happen next. A regular "dramatic moment." People in the audience gasping, holding on to each other, spitting up their Goobers.
With this movie you know 25 minutes before the end of a scene what's gonna happen. For instance, Colin ("Don't Call Me Powell") Farrell and his Indian girlfriend are in a field. They hardly speak. They walk towards each other. They circle each other. They look deeply into each other's eyes. ... Meanwhile, I'm in my seat in the movie theatre and my pacemaker is getting low on batteries and I have to go pee. ... And all this is going on for tne, fifteen minutes. So what, we're stupid? We don't catch on that Colin Farrell is gonna schtup her? So come on already, get to the point, start pilin' up the wood, Colin baby, you're in-like- Flynn!
In "Singing in the Rain" Gene Kelly was hot for Debbie Reynolds. *She* jumps out of a cake and for the rest of the movie *he* has to eat saltpeter sandwiches he's so excited. Simple, right? Nobody has to be partake of any D-E-E-P thinking. There's no slo-o-o-o-ow, tedious, drawn out dialogue. No long, wistful, soulful goo-goo-eyed looks. You like the gal, Colin? She rings your chimes? She does for you what Sophie Tucker did for me back in '37? Then bust a move, boychick. Get on with it, we don't have all day; this isn't "War and Peace."
Also, the chief of the tribe, the Big Cheese ... This guy, we're told, is supposed to have fathered one hundred children. Ho boy! Now there's some action they could have shown us! Talk about workin' on the railroad! (Didn't this guy have any hobbies? And who did he score his Vaigra from?)
But, no, those one hundred blessed moments we don't see. Instead this guy moves and talks just as slow as everybody else in the facockta movie. Hey, listen, you show me some old geezer that's fathered a hundred kids and I'll show you a fast-talkin', fast-movin', silver-head smoothie.
Put Charo in his harem and then you have a movie, mister!
Also, if this guy fathered a hundred kids, where the heck are they? I only saw about 30 or 40 Indian extras. What? -- all his little cockers left the village, went to the big city and became social workers? I doubt it.
Also ... as someone of European background myself, I must say, Europeans in this movie don't come off very well. They're portrayed as brutal, militaristic, slimy, greedy low-life thugs. OK, so we'll leave my third wife out of this for the time being. But what an awful image of us Europeans. These English guys in the movie, these Europeans: they set up a colony and before you know, bing-bang-boom, the place turns into a regular pig-sty. Like my fifth wife's condominium after a mahjong.
OK, so us Europeans aren't perfect. So Europeans raped and pillaged most of North America, South America, Africa, Asia and several neighborhoods in Brooklyn.
So sue us!
You know, I once knew an Indian. Never used a napkin. Wiped his mouth on his sleeve. But you don't see me making a movie about an entire race of people dripping corn kernels from their mouths, do you? No sir!
Just keep in mind the advice of the author Nelson Algren, who once said:
"Never eat at a place called Mom's. Never sleep with a woman whose troubles are worse than your own. And never play cards with an Indian called Doc."
And this man was an author!!!
Don't get me wrong, I love Indians. Tonto: one tough Jewish Indian. That's right, Jewish. Who do you think gave him his bar mitzvah pen back in '43? Yours truly, Yasha Banana. I loved the guy. I worshipped the ground he put his ear to to see if a taxi was coming.
I love Indians. I, personally, and without a partner, opened up a delicatessen in Cleveland back in '58. Every Cleveland Indian who came in, I treated him like a prince. So what about us Caucasians? We have no good points? Just because we have a history of being miserable, rotten, warlike plunderers -- how come everybody should know about it? Blab, blab, blab!
Here's another thing ... In the movie the Indian lady, err, I mean the Indian woman, err, I mean, the Native American lady, err, I mean, the ladylike Native American woman person in the flicker ... how's come she right away falls head over heels for Colin Farrell? Just because he's good-looking? If the Indian culture she lives in is so great, what? there isn't a good-looking guy or two she's already dating? I would think so, logically speaking that is.
Meaning: the first half of the movie would be how Colin Farrell deals with this woman's truckload of boyfriends. Come on, these virile young bucks are supposed to give her up without a fight? We're supposed to believe that Colin Farrell strolls into the village, grabs the cutest gal in sight and all her boyfriends all of a sudden become gay? Be serious. You can't bamboozle me, man. I have a mind to
write Colin Farrell and ask him for my money back. Who's he think he's foolin'?
And I'll tell you something else. And I didn't want to bring this up ... but these English guys didn't look all that clean and washed to me. In fact, I hate to say it but my guess is that these fellows, including Mister Wonderful Colin Farrell, they were all farshtunken. Stinky. P.U., man. Especially Colin. Here he's coming to Virginia in the hole of a ship because he tried to mutiny. What? they have showers and a little ribbon around the toilets in the hole of a 17th century ship? There must have been such a stink coming from him. And then all of a sudden he gets ashore, fresh as a daisy, and he turn into a regular Mark Spitz.
No sir! Yasha Banana knows a farshtunken sailor when he sees one.
You can talk all you like about how wonderful this movie is and how wonderful it's message is about peace and love and eating berries in the moonlight, but all I see are a bunch of stinky people who talk real slow trying to pass themselves off as Method actors. Pretty soon Lee Strasberg's gonna show up as the chief of the village next door -- The Kleinman Indians.
Bearing the famous "Kleinman Diamond."
Which has a curse.
Mister Kleinman.
I give the flicker one star. On consignment. Maybe I'll change my mind and want the star back. We'll have to see. Tell Colin Farrell I'm thinking about it. He wants to negotiate, that can be arranged. We'll sit, we'll talk, we'll do, we'll make.
Your pal,
Yash
Lovely film and revisionist interpretation December 23, 2009
Maja Loba
I won't give you a blow by blow detail of what goes on in this movie. I'm only chiming in because I bought the "Extended Cut" and had to own it after seeing more intimate, cut-out scenes with Captain Smith (Farrell) and Pocahontas (Kilcher) on the internet; very beautiful, emotional scenes. I was surprised at the nudity--native women swimming-- in the beginning; nothing tasteless mind you. I'm pretty sure that was a double used for "Matoaka". There are many cut scenes that will help the viewer better understand the original release. I only wish there were more. I was expecting to see scenes from the trailer; they're not there! And where in the heck were the ALL subtitles for the Native American characters?! I very much wanted to understand the dialogue between them and the "invader". What was up with all those one-sided conversations?? I was hoping it would be included in this version. This movie is definitely Euro-centric... So if you don't own this dvd, and have only seen it on cable, this is a better deal...almost. The ending is especially a let-down: Captain Smith and Pocahontas meeting again. I was hoping she would let him have it!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 328
|
|
|
