Verbal and visual poem

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2006)

I saw this movie in the theater when it first opened. The audience expected "Saving Private Ryan in the Pacific," and many were very disappointed with that they got instead. Meanwhile, I was amazed.
It is not plot-driven. It does not explain its back stories, its subtexts. Those are for you to figure out.
It combines music, images, words, sounds into a poem of sorts, transcendental, spiritual, human, ambiguous, thoughtful.
It is amazing only if you are willing to be patient and bring a thoughtful eye and an open mind to it.
I just saw "The New World" and the audience reacted in much the same way -- leaving and talking out loud during the film's closing images (but not the credits). It too was slow, poetic, thoughtful, exploring the interiors of characters and the spiritual implications of life on earth. Heady stuff, but the audience wanted more action, more plot.