Great

Rating: 10/10 (19 September 2008)

Terrence Malick is simply the greatest living American filmmaker. Only Stanley Kubrick was his equal or superior. That's not to say that Martin Scorsese nor Woody Allen have not made great films, but they've both made stinkers in their careers, and neither has had a great film in over a decade (although I've heard good things about Allen's current Match Point). Not only is Malick the best filmmaker in the nation, despite The New World being only his 4th film in the 33 years since his first, Badlands, was released, but he may be the only filmmaker in the world who truly has developed his own cinematic language- apart from a reliance on the written words of a screenplay to carry the bulk of the film's art and story. He is also the greatest American historian in the cinematic art form. It's his forté alone.
Better still, he never condescends in his films. He presents his tales sparely, with cinematography, enough dialogue to convey the scene, and occasional voiceovers that play off the visuals and imagery to leave a poetic dissonance in the viewer's mind that the mind is forced to fill in the synapse with its own meaning, thus creating narrative from symbols, visuals, and their interplay. It truly is a different and new form of screen writing; and a great form, one wholly enmeshed in the medium that birthed it. What makes it great are not the words, but their relation to what is on the screen. Simple declarative and/or descriptive sentences, such as Smith's descriptions of Pocahontas, 'She exceeded the others not only in beauty and proportion, but in wit and spirit, too,' or Rolfe's ideas about her, 'When first I saw her, she was regarded as someone broken, lost,' transcend Shakespearean depth in this new medium, and in centuries hence Terrence Malick will get his due as one of the giants of the 'early', first century of human cinema.
The actual meat of this film is the by now almost fabular tale of John Smith (Colin Farrell) and his 'love'- Pocahontas (although that name is never used in the film)- during the settling of Jamestown by Captain Newport (Christopher Plummer) and his charges. All the familiar facts are presented- he is captured by her tribe, her father, Chief Powhatan (August Schellenberg), releases him when she saves him from death. He grows to respect the Indians, returns to Jamestown, abandons her when she is outcast by her father for supposedly betraying her people by feeding the English during the winter, then giving them seeds to grow crops, and she ends up marrying John Rolfe (Christian Bale), a kind widower whose son has also died, taking the Christian name Rebecca, giving him another son, and wowing the English court.
If film can achieve sheer apports with its art, then Terrence Malick is the lone levitator and magician around. The only minor negative point in this film, and it's very minor, is that as well-done as the voiceovers are the film might have been better off without them, for some of the poetic statements of Smith, Rolfe, and Pocahontas seem a bit over the heads of their 17th Century low born utterers- unlike those in his earlier films. Of all the films that are getting Oscar buzz- from worthy films like Capote and Shopgirl, to blatantly PC fodder like Brokeback Mountain, this is- easily- the best film that last year produced. Yet, it will only get some cinematography, editing, scoring, or other minor nods.
There is a ritualistic feel to this film that glues one's eyes to it, from its sublime opening to its choral ending shot of New World trees reaching sunward, even to its non-standard non-black screen credits at the end. This is not a film, but an experience, and that is not me trying to sound poetic, but really defining the film. See it, then get the DVDs of his earlier films and see that real, great art still exists. Then, if you want to go back to crap after that, I'm sure Spielberg will have another clunker ready in a few months. People like him always do. Yet, it'll probably be another decade before we get a Malick masterpiece. Sigh.