A new view of the old world

Rating: 9/10 (17 November 2008)

In his fourth film, Terrence Malick once again takes poetic liberty in delivering us a story which  like his previous three films, Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The Thin Red Line  causes us to ponder our own existence and current state of mind. The New World brings us on a beautiful journey from the first landing of the English in Virginia, to the current Powhotan Indian settlements, and all the way back to England. Each place is a new world of its own kind. In this film, we do not get another revisionist take of history, but rather an exploration into nature, innocence, and modern culture. Emmanuel Lubezki beautifully crafts every shot with purely natural lighting to truly bring us back to the age of Eden in America. The New World is a film that's meant to be felt and understood.
After some voyeuristically tranquil establishing shots of the still untouched nature in America, the movie opens with John Smith (Colin Farrel) and 100 other Brits landing on the beaches of America. They are looking for gold, but end up staying and setting up Jamestown as the ships head to back to England for more supplies. In a searching expedition, John Smith gets captured by the Powhatans already living there, and seconds before he is to be killed, the young Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilcher) throws herself on him and begs to have his life spared. We see here both the beauty and the fatality of the innocence of the natives, or 'naturals' as they are called in the film. Just as in the first contact scene, they are very wary of the invading Brits, but ignorant to the corruption and greed that they bring with them, and the ultimate fate that they face. In a showing of mercy that will ultimately add a nail to their own coffins, they spare Smith's life, and allow him to live with Pocahontas in order for them to learn each others languages and learn from each other. Smith and Pocahontas bond, and become as one in the following months. There is very little dialogue, but many monologues, streams of consciousness, and a melding of energies. She represents nature, and purity, and innocence. And he represents someone who never even knew these things, but is learning. They are not two lovers as we think of lovers today, but rather two energies, flowing seamlessly together with each other and the earth. Through cinematography that makes us believe in the purity and spirituality of nature again, and the lack of dialogue, we as viewers really connect with who the Native Americans are and what they represented. Malick presents us with a counter-argument to the revisionist history that we hear so often.
Through Pocahontas' transformation, we embody the feelings that Malick is representing in the film. Smith ends up heading back to England, and leaves Pocahontas all alone and thinking he is dead. She is left in the dystopia that is early Jamestown; trapped as a bargaining chip to prevent them from being attacked by the naturals again. In the settlement, she lives in the mud, with little food, and wearing traditional English clothes that not only seem ridiculous, but sad because they work to cover her and prevent her connection with nature. She says her favorite thing is grass, yet, she can't even walk or move, much less frolic and feel the tall grasses like she used to because of her new clothes and lifestyle. She ends up marrying and having a child with a new English settler named John Rolfe (Christian Bale). She consents to him because her feeling of loss  not just from Smith, but from nature, her old way of life, and her tribe  overtakes her and numbs her. The English have cut down all the trees within a half a mile of their settlement, so that they might build large walls, watch towers, and a large Christian cross. Their presence becomes too big for the naturals to drive off, and they begin the wheels of history in conquering the entire new world with lack of respect or understanding of what was there first. Eventually, Pocahontas returns to England with a crew to meet the king and queen, and once again we are thrust into a new world. The geometry, lines, and order of everything we see is almost sickening. The bushes are all sculpted perfectly, the grass is all shaved down, and the buildings are all elegant and massive. Pocahontas and the other naturals who came along on the trip barely even know what they're looking at. Modern man does not embrace nature and beauty, but rather tries to control it and redefine it. Nature is beautiful because is it pure chaos at its core, yet it works in perfect harmony. When we try to order it, define it, cut it down, and rebuild it in our own imperfect image of what true beauty is, we lose something undefinable. When Pocahontas dies at the end, we feel a sense of bittersweet happiness. Pocahontas has lost most of who she was through her journey to her new world, and we see this as the future for all the naturals.
This is a film that does not take patience as long as you know that you are going to a jazz show, and not a rock concert. It is beautifully crafted and thought provoking, but it does not dangle a twinkie in front of your face, but begs us for conversation. You must realize that Malick doesn't necessarily want people to think a certain thought, he just wants them to think. And if the heartfelt cinematography and Malick's unique directing can help you grasp onto the paradise and the connection with nature lost in this film, you will have found a piece of art that has the potential to change your whole frame of mind