A short while for history

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2020)

The New World is my favourite film of Terrence Malick's. I liked the Thin Red Line alot, because it depicted war as war should be depicted and was, to the best of my knowledge, first depicted by Ernst Jünger in In Stahlgewittern (1920). But here we have a film that isn't just depicting a moment in time, but the eventual joining of two lines of human evolution after a seperation of more than 10000 years.
While watching The New World cannot be accepted as an equivalent substitute for having actually been around all over this planet for the last 10000 years, it does open the mental pathways that allow a man to ponder the question what man has been doing all of this time.
Very few films do that. Very few films give you a chance to reflect and compare. Not everything in The New World is quite believable, but there is enough texture, enough undeniable detail, that a realistic appraisal of the value of civilization is triggered.
And although the film does take a side, it doesn't do so in a way that would prevent you from contemplating the virtue of the other side.
While watching the Making Of I was amazed about how much more engaging Christian Bale is in real life than on film. I think he's muting himself too much. You can also do it too little (e.g. Tom Selleck), but I think he's doing it too much.
Plummer plays adequately. Farrell looks sad as always, makes me wonder why anybody wanted him to play Alexander or Crockett. Here it fits better, but he still got on my nerves.
Aynway, all the actors could do is to sink this film and they didn't. It is not a film that hinges on stellar performances like Le Dîner de cons, for instance. No, the achievement here lies in the appearance of actuality, in doing away with the idea that you live in the 21st century and looking at a set or some plot of land set aside for scenic beauty next to a motorway. The achievement also lies in the sense of curiosity the film instills and that comes from not knowing why the director is showing you what he's showing you, i.e. that the plot of the film is not some transparent construct to make some specific point, but rather like a list of highlights on a sightseeing tour, which includes the necessary stops.