A 2-1/2 hours movie that seemed like 8 hours

Rating: 4/10 (24 January 2006)

Will this movie ever end? . . . was all I kept asking during myself the last hour and one-half. The New World is maddeningly, excruciating slow, with way too many long, thoughtful musings. The director seems to have watched too many Ingmar Bergman movies. The New World was as boring, long, incomprehensible and ponderous as five Ingmar Bergman movies and Wagner's Ring opera combined. A good third of the dialog was unintelligible. There were many beautiful scenes, but many of the water scenes were numbingly repetitive. How many times do we have to watch the main characters staring wistfully out at the water? The casting was great, but generally wasted on this ridiculous movie. On a positive note, the depiction of the squalor and suffering seemed very realistic. No expense appears to have been spared on creating the authentic costumes and sets. And on a final note, the depiction of the beginning of the white man's ultimately tragic mistreatment of the native American Indians added a sad note to the movie.