An extraordinary filmic experience.

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2006)

We know enough about British adventurer-explorer John Smith (who later named the region where I now live, New England) one of central figures in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia to understand how Terrence "Sparky" Malick was inspired to write and direct this movie. It follows the story of how Captain John Smith, then 26 (in 1606) was captured by the aboriginal people of Virginia and whose life was saved by the chieftain's preteen daughter. Pocahontas.
Malick is not a light-weight filmmaker (DAYS OF HEAVEN, THE THIN RED LINE) but he is an indulgent one. THE NEW WORLD is a meditative Tone Poem (yes, I know, this nomenclature belongs to music) the only appropriate term that comes to mind. It has polarized critics and audiences as well.
The film really belongs to an earlier period perhaps before the invention of television. It has been called "elegiac" by some critics who have swooned over it. I tend to agree. It is all at once, the aforementioned symphonic poem, a composition in one movement and a tender, crushingly moving love story that touches its audience deeply but does not leave marks. The nature of true love and life is both observed and reflected upon. The background tableau is essentially the natural world preexisting the European intrusion into the Western Hemisphere. In this environment Malick has been able to simplify the phenomenon of love and examine it in a wonderful light.
If I were a critic I would say that the film can use some cutting. We revisit Malick's pastoral visions more than once too many times. All that said, this is a very unusual experience in film. Its photography is magnificent and the music score exquisite. Perhaps it's one that we badly need in this our day of overwhelmingly chaotic, rapid-fire, synthetic life. Highly recommended!