The New World
I saw The New World this weekend, and I highly recommend it. I thought it was beautifully done and historically accurate. Generally, the reviews have been tepid; here is a collection of reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. About half of the reviewers think it was boring, and half appreciated it. Compare these general results with the more artsy readers of the Internet Movie Database.
What broke the tie for me was, of course, the Virginia angle. Every time I go to Jamestown or the Chesapeake, I think about what it must have been like for the English sailors to come ashore, and to set up a fort made of sharp sticks in a swamp, and to meet Indians and slowly starve to death. To me, one of the great promises of film is its ability to reconstruct the past, and this film does it as well as any I have ever seen.
John Smith and John Rolfe are played by Colin Farrell and Christian Bale. Neither one of them are anything special; they are adequate, probably because their parts are underwritten; they both play silent, pensive, passive observers of Pocahontas. (Given the career of John Smith, it is hard to imagine him as passive). Pocohontas (she is never called that in the film; she is either "the Princess or her baptismal name, Rebecca) is played by a first time actress named Q'Orianka Kilcher. She is brilliant and luminous and perfect in the role. Oddly enough, she physically resembles the Disney cartoon Pocahontas.
The story, such as it is, is familiar to any schoolchild; Pocahontas saves Smith, Smith leaves; she is captured by the colonists, she marries Rolfe and goes to England, where she dies. What the film does is very deliberately examine each aspect of the story. The arrival of the English and their initial encounters with the Indians. The capture of Smith and Pocahontas' rescue. The return of Smith to Jamestowne, where the disorganized rabble are at each other's throats, rolling in filth. (Everyone but Farrell, Bale, and Kilcher has historically accurate rotting teeth). Smith is called back to England and Rolfe arrives; Pocahontas is captured by the colonists, Pocahontas and Rolfe raise tobacco and have a child and go to England, where Pocahontas dies. The scenes of Pocahontas in western clothing walking around a hyper-sculpted English garden are an incredible contrast to her scenes in Virginia.
A lot of internet discussion of the film focuses on its director, Terence Malick. I have never seen any of his other films, so I can't contribute to that discussion. I will say, again, that the New World is a brilliant work of art. Go see it on a big screen; judging from the tiny audience on Friday night, it won't be in theatres for long.
Update: Here is a blog post that calls the film a generation-defining event.
What broke the tie for me was, of course, the Virginia angle. Every time I go to Jamestown or the Chesapeake, I think about what it must have been like for the English sailors to come ashore, and to set up a fort made of sharp sticks in a swamp, and to meet Indians and slowly starve to death. To me, one of the great promises of film is its ability to reconstruct the past, and this film does it as well as any I have ever seen.
John Smith and John Rolfe are played by Colin Farrell and Christian Bale. Neither one of them are anything special; they are adequate, probably because their parts are underwritten; they both play silent, pensive, passive observers of Pocahontas. (Given the career of John Smith, it is hard to imagine him as passive). Pocohontas (she is never called that in the film; she is either "the Princess or her baptismal name, Rebecca) is played by a first time actress named Q'Orianka Kilcher. She is brilliant and luminous and perfect in the role. Oddly enough, she physically resembles the Disney cartoon Pocahontas.
The story, such as it is, is familiar to any schoolchild; Pocahontas saves Smith, Smith leaves; she is captured by the colonists, she marries Rolfe and goes to England, where she dies. What the film does is very deliberately examine each aspect of the story. The arrival of the English and their initial encounters with the Indians. The capture of Smith and Pocahontas' rescue. The return of Smith to Jamestowne, where the disorganized rabble are at each other's throats, rolling in filth. (Everyone but Farrell, Bale, and Kilcher has historically accurate rotting teeth). Smith is called back to England and Rolfe arrives; Pocahontas is captured by the colonists, Pocahontas and Rolfe raise tobacco and have a child and go to England, where Pocahontas dies. The scenes of Pocahontas in western clothing walking around a hyper-sculpted English garden are an incredible contrast to her scenes in Virginia.
A lot of internet discussion of the film focuses on its director, Terence Malick. I have never seen any of his other films, so I can't contribute to that discussion. I will say, again, that the New World is a brilliant work of art. Go see it on a big screen; judging from the tiny audience on Friday night, it won't be in theatres for long.
Update: Here is a blog post that calls the film a generation-defining event.
posted by Virginian | 8:42 AM
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