The New World Review
by Mark R. Leeper (mleeper AT optonline DOT net)May 26th, 2006
THE NEW WORLD
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: Terrence Malick writes and directs the classic story of John Smith and Mataoaka (nicknamed Pocahontas) and later John Rolfe. Malick's script reinforces some of the unlikely myths like Mataoaka's romance with John Smith and Mataoaka dramatically risking her life to save Smith's life. But like most Malick films it is also a finely painted portrait showing the smallness of man in nature. Rating: +2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10
When Terrence Malick releases a new film it is a major event. He is a very private person who directs films of a sort of haunting beauty in which perhaps the most important character is usually nature. In his films one has the feeling that humans are interlopers in nature. His best known films to date have been BADLANDS, DAYS OF HEAVEN, and THE THIN RED LINE. Oddly enough, his story here had been done not long before (well, sort of) as a Disney animated musical. His story is the relationship between John Smith and Mataoaka. The latter had a nickname of Pocahontas which means wild or spoiled child. Historians tell us that Smith and Mataoka were probably never romantically linked. When they met Smith was 28 and Mataoka was 11. In 1607 the English settlers who colonized this part of what would be Virginia were even less tolerant as today we would be of a relationship between a 28-year-old man and an 11-year-old girl. Did Mataoka dramatically risk her life to save John Smith? If so nobody noted it at the time. Many years later John Smith told three different such stories, none ever substantiated.
The film opens to the Rhine music that begins Wagner's "Der Ring Des Nibelungen". This music starts so quiet it is nearly imperceptible and it builds and grows and compels the listener. While we hear this music we see the landing of ships from England and their being discovered by the native population on the shore. John Smith (Colin Farrell) arrives in chains and is sentenced to be hanged for insubordination. He is however pardoned because he is too valuable as an explorer. In specific, the English government wants him to look for an easy route to bypass the Americas and sail to the Pacific. But first Smith becomes an emissary to the Algonquians. He is taken with the sheer alien nature of the local population. And they are really alien. Smith is particularly taken with the unnamed woman whom we know as Mataoka or Pocahontas. For a long time the English and the native Americans live amicably together, with the Algonquians even saving the colony. Then the English refuse to leave and relations sour.
The script's sympathetic treatment of the native population as a part of nature is reminiscent of Malick's treatment of the natives in THE THIN RED LINE. The story slowly but the visuals of the beauty of nature are stunning and give the film an ethereal quality. Malick always has strong sense of nature in his film and the moods of nature become the mood of the film. The actors speak historically believable dialog. We leave nature only for scenes set in London, scenes unusual for Malick. His scripts are not compelling and usually move at what is today a very slow rate, but his visuals always are hypnotic and create the texture of the film. One almost has the feeling of visiting the time and place of the setting.
Q'orianka Kilcher stands as the center of the as the quiet and enigmatic Mataoka, but the film has an impressive cast including Christopher Plummer, Christian Bale, David Thewlis, and Wes Studi. Algonquians are shown being as strange and alien as any Native Americans are in any film I can remember, but they are always treated respectfully and in a visually beautiful way.
This is a strong, mesmerizing, and authentic-feeling view of a time and place lost to history. Malick's pacing is a taste I have not quite acquired and his history has some faults. But the film is a memorable experience for anyone with a healthy curiosity about the feeling of history. I rate it a +2 on the -4 to +4 scale or 7/10.
Mark R. Leeper
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Copyright 2006 Mark R. Leeper
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