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The New World Movie Review

The New World is a 2005 romantic epic film directed by Terrence Malick and starring Q’orianka Kilcher and Colin Farrell. It’s such a strong, highly underrated movie.

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“Love… shall we deny it when it visits us…

shall we not take what we are given“

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Pocahontas, a Native American princess, falls in love with Captain Smith, an English explorer. But her tribe’s hatred towards him forces her to choose between love and duty towards her people. First of all, I really like Disney’s version of this story, and unlike most people, I find it to be pretty good. This movie is even better, and it’s also a highly underappreciated picture that needs more love. Once again, the story is highly fictionalized, but the movie was clearly not supposed to be historically accurate, but rather like a romanticized poem in a way.

And that’s what it ended up being actually – a moving poem. The film has such amazing romantic sensibilities that I completely surrendered to its emotion near the end of its run. I say near because the third act surely is the best one. I was so moved by both her death and her troubles dealing with homesickness as well as her forming a relationship with a new man after Smith. That was all so well handled, and it was highly moving for the reason that the film is very long and you grow to care for her in particular.

Speaking of that runtime, it’s excessive without a doubt. Let’s talk about Malick’s direction, which is once again problematic. As a director, I’ve always found his style troublesome, and this is no different. Not only is the length overly extended (the film is mostly engaging, but still the first half should have been trimmed a bit), but also the movie felt incredibly pretentious in those excessive monologue scenes, which I uniformly found annoying and detrimental to the film’s otherwise highly cinematic qualities.

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What Q’orianka Kilcher did here is simply spectacular. Her casting was inspired as she has Native American heritage, but she is also incredibly pretty with a beauty that cannot be forgotten. Above all else, her performance goes to prove that sometimes these inspired casting choices can pay off as this lesser known actress ended up stealing the show from other much more renowned actors. She is confident, remarkable and she sold all of her emotional sequences beautifully.

I did like the characterization of Pocahontas as she is portrayed quite realistically. As for John Smith, he’s also great and their romance is wonderful. Colin Farrell again gave a strong performance, which is to be expected from his caliber. I also really liked Christian Bale in what is undoubtedly his most likable performance and character, but still John Rolfe’s inclusion felt rushed and problematic. Though their final scenes are undeniably beautiful, their first scenes were abrupt and very poorly handled, especially so for such a long movie.

One cannot overestimate the sheer spectacle of The New World. This has to be one of the most beautiful-looking pictures of the 2000s decade. The cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki is absolutely stunning. Everything here looks sumptuous from the costumes to the production design to the locales. The film felt authentic for its very bright look and a necessary emphasis on amazing natural landscapes. Some of the shots and takes are very inspired and artistic.

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The same should be said for the score as James Horner here gave us truly moving pieces that perfectly complements the film’s poetic sensibilities. The tone is great, the lesser emphasis on violence was quite welcome and the emotional investment is undeniable. I only wished for better pacing and dialogue, but otherwise this is one of Malick’s best efforts.

Thanks to simply incredible cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki, a terrific score by James Horner and an unforgettable performance from truly remarkable, beautiful Q’orianka Kilcher, The New World is a cinematic achievement that can be viewed as an authentic, very moving poem. It’s a historically inaccurate, highly romantic film that does feature some detrimental aspects typical of Terrence Malick such as excessive length, messy pacing and very annoying monologue scenes, but otherwise it’s a phenomenally acted, undeniably touching picture that is one of the best and most underrated Malick films.

My Rating – 4

You can get this terrific Terrence Malick romance on Amazon.