Beautiful, Mythopoetic

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2006)

Rather beautiful retelling of the first contact story in Jamestown. Farrell for once in his career is quite winning as the roguish, bad-man-trying-to-be-better John Smith, and the girl is exceptionally winning as Pocohantas. Exceptionally well photographed  one of the most beautiful movies I've ever seen, actually. You really need to see it on the big screen to appreciate it. Malick is also very good at capturing the essential foreignness of past times and cultures: this is a very difficult thing to do, as we tend to view the past through the lens of the present.
Malick seems to view this story through the rather clichéd lens of Decadent White Men vs. Noble Savage. It's a tribute to his artistry that he takes such threadbare material and makes it powerful. I think Malick captures a lot of what the Europeans must've felt when they saw the New World, a sense of it as an Eden where people could start afresh. I think Malick, to his credit, also hints that the European romanticization of the Native American was based purely on their foreignness: after all, they're shown to be quite warlike in their own right. Still, it ought to be said that Malick never really transcends this notion the way a true artist ought. It feels derivative to me.
Movie's biggest weakness, though, is a rather strange left turn ¾ of the way through into a conventional love story between Pocohantas and Christian Bale. This may well be historically accurate, and in fact on it's own terms it's kind of sweet, but it doesn't seem to fit into the movie proper. I would've preferred more with Wes Studi, who's a fine actor with little to do here. More importantly, his story makes more sense in the general scheme of things. Or at least I would've thought.
Recommended, though, a movie worth experiencing for yourself. It has it's faults, but Malick is a true artist, with all that means.