Malick brings his own ingenuity to a story we all know but it cannot save the film from being what it is.

Rating: 6/10 (20 October 2008)

A lot can be said for The New World, Terrence Malick's take on the true story of British settlers at Jamestown and the consequential love between two people of warring sides, those people being John Smith and Pocahontas. I think the story works or at least people take to it because it reminds us of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, itself a fable about two people interacting under the radar of two opposing sides. Granted, the British settlers and the Native Americans are not obviously hostile from the beginning but by the time the fight scenes have arrived, it's enough of a wait for the two to have spent time with one another and fallen in love. In this sense The New World works because Smith is allowed to spend time within the boundaries of the 'enemy', something both Romeo and Juliet could never do with the Montagues and the Capulets hating each other from the off.
I think the trouble with The New World as an overall film is the clash of priorities it most definitely has. The film is artistic and creative in its shot choice and more often than not puts you in a status of dreamlike consciousness; it does this through its frequent use of cutaways to foliage and other such natural pieces of iconography like rivers, flowing water and trees swaying in the breeze; all of these shots are usually accompanied with dizzying music and rendered quite obvious in the film's demand for an artistic labelling.
But this is half of the clash. The New World is essentially a genre picture, with the romance of Smith (Farrell) and Pocahontas (Kilcher) placing the film into that specific type. Later on, Pocahontas will strike up a relationship of some description with another John, this time it's Rolfe, played by Christian Bale. Bale's casting, by the time the film was made, meant the film was almost guaranteed to appeal to the teenage girl audience. Indeed, Farrell's inclusion ensured they would keep watching up to the first half and Bale's inclusion meant they'd keep going. Although the fact of the matter is that these two roles could well have been played by mostly any body since they demand the actor stand around, act neutral for most of the time and deliver whatever short bursts of dialogue when required.
People say of Terrance Malick that he fits the auteur labelling; The New World is good ammunition for that argument. Most of us are familiar with the tale of the British settlers landing in America and encountering the Native Americans thanks largely through Disney's 1995 animated effort, itself rather underrated I thought, and it's because of this film I am familiar with said fable. But Malick takes this old, old story that has an essence of Romeo and Juliet within it and stamps it with his own creative, artistic touch. The cutaways to the rural backdrops of trees and water are included but they feel as if they are better things lurking below the surface, every so often having a peek over top, trying to get out. The good use of the jungle locations may remind us of Aguirre: The Wrath of God and the sparse use of dialogue feels at home given the approach to the material.
So although there isn't anything wrong with the direction, The New World feels like the wrong film from the right director. It's really just a take on an event the mainstream will probably have heard of from a man the mainstream probably won't have heard of. The inclusion of Farrell, Bale and a good cast in general will attract those cast hungry people; predominantly teenagers and the artistic approach the film carries will make them go away thinking they've just seen something really smart. I didn't take to it as much as I thought I would. The fact John Smith is played by an Irishman is a little distracting, following on from the casting of Australian born Mel Gibson who came complete with an American accent of course, who played Smith in Disney's 1995 version. It seems the Americans, bless them, cannot bring themselves to cast an Englishman or indeed a Brit. for the role of John Smith.
Then there are the other things like having Q'orianka Kilcher dressed up really fancy-like for the role of Pocahontas. As a character, she seems to be the only Native American female between the ages of 16-25 located on the entire continent. The fact that when she swaggers around she looks like a budding lap dancer, exchanging glances with Farrell in a dialogue sparse film remember, is distracting enough but the modern makeup and eerie sense she is supposed to be the object of the audience's gaze just feels out of place and somewhat disturbing. Pocahontas is young, attractive and doesn't say an awful lot thanks largely to the language barrier that exists between her and Smith. It's this level of anonymity that exists within her character on screen that will garner most attention from the teenage female audience as they associate themselves with her and watch (themselves) fall in love with Farrell all over again. I watch most films for their direction and the approach Malick brings to this fable is enough to warrant The New World a watch but all the other stuff going on between characters is slow and weak when it isn't plain uninteresting in the first place, how frustrating.