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| The New World |
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List Price: $27.98
Buy New: $11.95
You Save: $16.03 (57%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $7.36
Avg. Customer Rating:  (based on 206 reviews)
Sales Rank: 257
Category: DVD
Director: Terrence Malick
Publisher: New Line Home Video
Studio: New Line Home Video
Manufacturer: New Line Home Video
Label: New Line Home Video
Format: Ac-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Subtitled, Widescreen, Ntsc
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD
Running Time: 135 minutes
Number Of Items: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 0.6
UPC: 794043102530
EAN: 0794043102530
ASIN: B000ESSUL4
Release Date: May 9, 2006
Theatrical Release Date: January 20, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
The legend of Pocahontas and John Smith receives a luminous and essential retelling by maverick filmmaker Terrence Malick. The facts of Virginia's first white settlers, circa 1607, have been told for eons and fortified by Disney's animated films: explorer Smith (Colin Farrell) and the Native American princess (newcomer Q'orianka Kilcher) bond when the two cultures meet, a flashpoint of curiosity and war lapping interchangeably at the shores of the new continent. Malick, who took a twenty year break between his second and third films (Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line), is a master of film poetry; the film washes over you, with minimal dialogue (you see characters speak on camera for less than a quarter of the film). The rest of the words are a stream-of-consciousness narration--a technique Malick has used before but never to such degree, creating a movie you feel more than watch. The film's beauty (shot in Virginia by Emmanuel Lubezki) and production design (by Jack Fisk) seems very organic, and in fact, organic is a great label for the movie as a whole, from the dreadful conditions of early Jamestown (it makes you wonder why Englishman would want to live there) to the luminescent love story. Malick is blessed with a cast that includes Wes Studi, August Schellenberg, Christopher Plummer, and Christian Bale (who, curiously, was also in the Disney production). Fourteen-year-old Kilcher, the soul of the film, is an amazing find, and Farrell, so often tagged as the next big thing, delivers his first exceptional performance since his stunning debut in Tigerland. James Horner provides a fine score, but is overshadowed by a Mozart concerto and a recurring prelude from Wagner's Das Rheingold, a scrumptious weaving of horns fit to fuel the gentle intoxication of this film. Note: the film was initially 150 minutes, and then trimmed to 135 by Malick before the regular theatrical run. It was also the first film shot in 65mm since Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet. --Doug Thomas
Description
In this romantic epic starring Colin Farrell, Christian Bale and beautiful newcomer Q'orianka Kilcher, acclaimed filmmaker Terrence Malick brings to life the classic true tale of Pocahontas and her relationship with adventurer John Smith set during the turbulent beginnings of America.
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Customer Reviews: Read 201 more reviews...
 SOMEBODY SHOOT THE WRITERS!!! July 20, 2006
2 out of 6 found this review helpful
The New World was quite a disappointment considering the presence of Collin Farrell and David Thewlis, and the film dealing with the first English North American colony of Jamestown (1607).
The acting is pretty good (but nothing great), the plot is below average, while the dialogues/lines are way beyond "below average," and then there's the great location; Jamestown, Virginia...
Collin Farrell disappoints, just like he disappointed us with Alexander.
David Thewlis who was great in Kingdom of Heaven, is given terrible lines and a bad role. A shame, really...
The dialogues-oh my- the dialogues are beyond words...
School plays (and pre-school for that matter) have better lines! It is truly sad...
The only positive aspect of the "movie" is the setting/location, which really is Jamestown; the scenery is great-Virginia is beautiful!
It seems as though the writers/directors/producers decided to go artsy-fartsy on us, following in the dreaded footsteps of other such "films" as the "Russian Ark."
So it's a weak plot, a great setting and a good cast, which when put together fail to take off.
In short, you might want to wait till they show it on TV. 1.5 Stars
 Great Cinematography Does Not Make a Great Film... July 18, 2006
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
You would have thought people would have realized this by now after seeing Malick's 1998 confusing editing fiasco "The Thin Red Line".
My review on this film is almost a carbon copy on what I wrote about "The Thin Red Line", although I have to admit that this one made leagues more sense but was twice as boring. Again, editing problems were still a major issue as well as a meandering storyline.
The ony saving grace for either of these films was the cinematography. So, if anything; Kudos to John Toll & Emmanuel Lubezki.
Wierd mix of "Blackrobe" and "Russian Ark" July 17, 2006
4 out of 10 found this review helpful
Well, as a junkie for historical films, I finally had to break down and see this. I didn't heed the reviews here on Amazon, and less than 1 minute into the film I knew there was trouble ahead when the score music for the Jamestown landing is Wagner's Rheinmaiden frolic from "Das Rheningold." What on Earth!? Then there is the other main music theme playing periodically throughout the film: a Glinka-esque piano. The bulk of dialogue is rambling, monologue voice over narration, principally Collin Farrell's obnoxious, whispery accented voice rambling philosophical. Honestly, these monologues sound like bad coffee shop poetry reading night entries. And the melancholy, faux highbrow tone -- all I could think of were the annoying narrator and companion in "Russian Ark."
The nature and native sequences are interesting - but with the riddiculous soundtrack I kept having images of the three Rhein nymphs swimming with the Nibelung troll. Then Glinka's piano would start playing (late 19th century romantic themes), and the image switches to sipping tea from a samovar in a Winter Palace salon.
Oh, and the opening sequence with the map is a blatant rip-off of "Blackrobe."
So much potential ... blown
don't waste your money, more importantly, don't waste your time July 16, 2006
5 out of 14 found this review helpful
I am totally disappointed in this movie. It is boring and long. The plot does not have a smooth flow. Colin Farrell appears to not have learned any script for this movie, and the whole bit about him not learning a single Indian word while living with them for months is unbelievable. Pocahontas character is flat in many ways.
Just awful movie. I can't believe I'm wasting more time writing about this movie....
 Destruction of Eden July 12, 2006
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
Back in high school I asked a girl who had seen The Thin Red Line whether it was any good. She responded dubiously, saying there were a lot of "shots of birds and stuff." Then, she turned to me and contemptuously stated, "you'd probably like it." Despite this fine recommendation I still hadn't seen a Terrence Malick film until The New World. This was a mistake because I cannot recommend this film enough.
Film is a visual medium. A surprisingly few number of directors understand this. Television and stage should be based around dialogue, but film should be visuals first. Film is much closer to painting and photography than it is theater (which is one of the reasons most plays translate poorly into film). Malick understands films are visual, and the film is noticeably dialogue light. In fact, it's a movie that could have been shot without dialogue, and while that would have been confusing, the fact the cinematography is so perfect I still would not have cared. Watching the film I am constantly reminded of how picturesque our country really is.
The film eschews what many believe were the historical events at Jamestown for the myth that has been handed down. Most historians now believe that John Smith wasn't going to be executed, but was actually being initiated into the tribe in what would be now viewed as a kind of hazing ritual. This was supposed to have helped relations between the settlers and the Native Americans. John Smith was also a well known braggart and liar, and had told many stories where his life was spared by a gorgeous woman who had fallen in love with him. In fact, it is likely Pocahontas was sent to the colony as an ambassador between the two people in hopes of keeping the peace.
However, it does not bother me that Malick chose the myth over history because he perfectly captures the lives of early settlers. In A People's History of the United States, Howard Zinn describes one failed settlement after another, many Europeans finding that survival meant leaving their settlement and joining the local native tribes (which was sometimes punished by death). The winters were harsh in this new world and the English did not have the skills the Native Americans had, such as growing corn, squash, and other American foods in soil that was far less hospitable than Europe's. Malick presents this desperation perfectly, and even alludes to possible cannibalism that may have taken place. Even when well meaning, the English are a people who rule through a strict hierarchy and are not hesitant to use the harshest means to insure order (shooting, hanging, and whipping to name a few).
The Natives are presented as a people conflicted. They don't want to start a war, but are weary that the newcomers will soon want more land than the swamps they've settled. Unlike the Europeans, who have one leader whose commands filter to the rest of the people unquestioned, the Native Chief accepts input from his advisors, and ultimately acquiesces to his daughter and spares John Smith's life. They are presented as a people who live naturally with the world around them, and do not have to put nature under their dominion, but rather symbiotically live within nature.
Ultimately, The New World is a tragedy about love and imperialism. I would have to watch it several more times to find something more interesting to say. It's hard to watch the film without knowing that the disease that took Pocahontas's life would similarly wipe out whole Native villages along with a vicious military campaign. The New World takes place at a time when reconciliation seemed fragile, but not impossible, and before genocide destroyed Eden forever.
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Copyright Runningonkarma.com 2006
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