A rather lifeless "World"

Rating: 6/10 (13 February 2006)

Terrence Malick's The New World is a sumptuous looking motion picture, full of natural beauty and what is by far the most believable depiction of what the world of America might have been like in 1602 Virginia when the first European colonists arrived to form Jamestown. However, as gorgeous as The New World is, it is also a rather empty film for most of it's running time, featuring actors who are supposed to be characters but end up as just ciphers and we are left looking at beautiful imagery representing very little.
As stated above, The New World is set at the landing of the European's on Virginia's shores. Among them is John Smith (Colin Farrell) who is in the ship's hold and about to be hanged upon landing for mutinous statements. The colony's governor (Christopher Plummer) spares his life, however, and sets him on a mission to develop a relationship with the local Native Americans, referred to here as "Naturals." Smith is captured by the naturals and brought before their chief, Powhatan (August Schellenberg), who plans to take his life as part of a plan to drive the settlers from their shores. Smith's life is saved by Powhatan's daughter, Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher), and she and Smith eventually fall in love. Powhatan later releases Smith to return to Jamestown, with the intention of the settlers departing, but Smith and his people stay, and are supported through the efforts of Pocahontas, who gives them food and supplies. In the process, she angers her father, who disowns her and she quickly finds herself stranded by her love also, when Smith, ambivalent about their relationship, departs for a new expedition and leads her to believe that he has died. Grief stricken, she is eventually rescued from her woe by tobacco farmer John Rolfe (Christian Bale), who, while less flashy and instinctive than Smith, shows her love and companionship.
The above description is actually pieced together from a variety of sources, since if you just watch the film, you would not be sure if Pocahontas was really in love with Smith, that John Rolfe was named John Rolfe and that Pocahontas was ever named Pocahontas (she is referred to later in the film by her English name, Rebecca). Malick has produced a film that is long on pretty pictures and short on dialogue and character development. I applaud him to a certain extent for being willing to tell a story through mostly imagery, letting events unfold by way of his pictures, something not every director is skilled at. Most of the narrative is discernible from the string of images, but what is missing are the people at the center of the story. Smith is little more than a grungy guy who falls for the natural way of life and spends a lot of time frolicking in the fields with Pocahontas. Pocahontas is a playful girl who likes holding John Smith's hand and later appears rather distraught at his loss. Yes, I can discern the basics from the character's faces, but that doesn't make them people to me. These aren't characters, they are just bodies wandering through the camera's range. When dialogue is uttered, it is often rather hushed and indecipherable. At some instances when the naturals speak to each other in their native tongue, when the subtitles pop up on screen I swear that there was actually no dialogue spoken on screen.
Malick substitutes some of the dialogue for long, whispery monologues that are supposed to represent the character's thoughts, but these are also often difficult to make-out, and occasionally are rather pretentious. Smith rambles on about how the new world represents a new beginning for people in one segment and manages to use about every example he can find to describe how people can start over on this new continent. I got the point long before Smith stops talking. Towards the end of the film, the relationship between Pocahontas and Rolfe does develop some tenderness, but that is only in the last fifteen minutes; before that, I don't know if I really cared. Pocahontas finds it difficult to lover her new companion when she still feels deeply for Smith, but we as an audience can't begin to relate, because their relationship had no chemistry, no passion, no life.
Malick's film is, indeed, an absolute treasure trove of imagery that is awesome. It could almost pass for a documentary of what life at that time would have felt like. This is no Hollywood set, it has all the verisimilitude of the real world, and for that alone, for those who are interested, it is worth a look. Malick even seems to rely on very little visual effects. There are no elaborate panoramas, no matte paintings or CGI. This is all mostly what the camera can see, and it helps immeasurably to maintain the illusion of reality. For those, like me, who often wonder what is what like to live in the past, The New World is the closest I have ever come to really experiencing it.
I have never seen one of Malick's other films, but based on what I have read, the flaws are the same in The New World as any other film in his oeuvre. Many can appreciate his unique contribution to film-making, and I don't believe that The New World is without merit. But I also believe that the best films, usually, are about characters, and that is what is missing here, so Malick's treatise on the founding of America is, in the end, beautiful imagery that is hollow at the core.