A Poke In The Eye For Disney-History

Rating: Null/10 (31 January 2006)

A curious feature of Terence Malick's 'The New World' is that nowhere in the script is the central character referred to by her proper name. Pocahontas. Perhaps this is to distance what purports to be a more culturally aware and historical accurate telling of her tale from the Disneyfication (literal and metaphorical) of her legend which, sadly, has greater purchase on the popular imagination. In some respects this distance is achieved. Although represented as morally conflicted between fondness for his lover and her community and his loyalty to the British crown, Colin Farrell is not the idealistic, tolerant, clean-cut hero of legend. He is a moral coward and a complete git. This is probably one of Farrell's better performances, though he does, as ever, walk through much of the film looking slightly stunned - somewhat as though he's just been smacked in the head with a plank of wood. He tries too hard. Q'Orianka Kilcher's Pocahontas (referred to for much of the film simply as 'The Princess' or by her baptismal name, Rebecca) is, by comparison, fresh, earnest and a joy to watch. Unquestionably the star of the movie. Christian Bale gets, for once, to suffer from no notable neuroses or psychoses, and a host of able character actors (though the talents of some, David Thewlis and Jonathan Price  the latter of whom has no lines at all - in particular, are underused) provide able support. August Schellenberg's Powahatan is surprisingly subtle in his characterisation.
It's a beautiful film. The combination of Emmanuel Lubezki cinematography and James Horner's score works superbly well, capturing the majesty of Malick's New World. A nice contrast between the functional, ritualistic demi-paradise of the 'Naturals' and the filth and disorder of the 'civilised' settlers is established early on  complemented by the reactions of Powahaten's people visiting the London of James VI/I (astonished and horrified in equal measure by the majesty of the architecture and the hellish need for the white man to enforce order even to the natural world).
Not a perfect film by any measure, and the portrayal of Powahatan's people is a tad idealistic, but a creditable attempt to tell Pocahontas' story.