Exquisite if taxing Tone Poem

Rating: Null/10 (3 January 2006)

Those heading into Terrence Malick's THE NEW WORLD expecting a "story" will probably soon become bored, if not outright bewildered by his visionary tone poem about the early settling by westerners of Virginia focusing on Pocahontus, John Smith and (to a lesser extent) John Rolfe.
Malick's THIN RED LINE similarly used the approach of having several characters' inner thoughts heard as a sort of ghostly voice-over to the events we see. Indeed, without the voice-overs, large sections of the film almost play as they would if they were a Silent Movie. Long dialogue-less sequences with overlapping edits cover large sections of the film. Even critical "plot points" are cover with simple fades and cuts. It certainly taxes one's patience, especially over the 149 minutes the original version ran/runs (At this writing, a shorter cut was being planned for wide release; a futile effort for it can't be edited to make it a mass appeal film).
The film rewards one's patience once the symbolic and poetic structure of the piece comes clear. Indeed, the film's major flaws are precisely WHEN it tries to present a plot or a story. It's as if a non-verbal spell has been broken. Rarely would a screenwriter allow so much of his work be in the hands of his technicians as does Malick (doubtless under his strict control). The Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), Production Design (Jack Fisk), Music (James Horner, his best in a long while) etc. are vital to the telling and they all come up aces here. All of these elements come together in an absolutely masterful closing sequence (dialogue-less, naturally).
One final note on the Sound for the film (not unexpectedly, brilliant): Malick truly understands the importance of silence and/or sparse precise natural sounds in Cinema. Too often people (even in the business) judge Film Sound on the basis of how MUCH and how LOUD it is, not how it's used creatively.