THE NEW WORLD

All right, time to wax poetic about my favorite movie of the year, The New World. I’ve only seen it in the theaters four times, and would have seen it several more times if it hadn't been unceremoniously yanked from the theaters already.

I’ll be the first to admit that this movie is not for everyone. People always ask me what good movies are out in the theaters, and lately I’ve been telling them The New World is the best one out right now, but also recommending that they not watch it. It really is a great example of a transcendental film, but if you’re not in the right mood or frame of mind you’ll miss it entirely and think it’s just a beautifully shot snooze-fest. Terrence Malick really has a knack for creating films that exist outside of time, and that’s a very interesting choice to make for a film that purportedly covers a historically significant episode of our country’s past. I would say that although the film switches perspective between the main characters and an omniscient perspective (maybe Nature), the overall film technique is definitively non-Western, which makes it especially effective during the scenes shot from the Native American perspective.


Another interesting technique that Malick uses (another thing that most people would just find obtuse and obnoxious) is his peculiar presentation of dialog and narration. One example is towards the middle when Christopher Plummer is giving a momentous speech to the settlers. I don’t remember the particulars of the speech, but in the middle the volume just fades away and the camera wanders elsewhere. Scenes like this aren’t really allowed to begin or end – it’s as if Malick is reminding us that none of this really happened, or at least none of it really happened in the way it’s been presented to us by Western historians. At other points the dialog between characters is overlapped by narration. Even after two viewings there are whole sequences of dialog that I was unable to understand – and this in a movie that’s very sparse with the words to begin with.


Without giving too much away (since I know no one has seen this film) – the final chapter of the film really is the most moving sequence I’ve seen in recent memory. It takes place in England, and after a couple hours of being lulled into a trance in the swamps of Virginia, the buildings and bustle of England appear bizarre and foreign (even to us city folk). The scenes shot in the topiary gardens are absolutely brilliant. Seeing the Native American character walk around the obsessively groomed and restrained topiary garden is really touching – there’s no dialog, but you know exactly what he’s thinking. Malick manages to film this scene as if it takes place in an alien world. And the final scene between Q’Orianka Kilcher and Colin Farrell is amazing – hey, maybe the whole point of the movie really is “Men are Stupid.”

So, I guess to wrap it up, I should really recommend that everyone see this movie, even if you’ll be bored. Take a chance – anyone interested in non-Western historical ideas, or Native American culture, or atypical filmmaking, or hot sweaty Colin Farrell and Christian Bale should really give it a shot. And it’s an easy movie to drag the boyfriends to – Q’Orianka Kilcher is stunningly beautiful, and although she was only 14 when the film was shot, she looks about 24, so that makes it all right (I think?) And although I’d like to look forward to Malick’s next movie, that’ll happen either ten years from now or never, so I’m not getting hyped up quite yet.

Oh, and I updated my Best of 2005 list below...