The New World

    365 Films

Entry #70

The New World (2005)

Directed by Terrence Malick

In what would have amounted to an extended vacation to most directors, proved to be merely a hiccup for Terrence Malick when he released The New World only seven years after 1998’s The Thin Red Line.  In fact, I’ve often wondered if the lukewarm reaction afforded to The New World was a result of some of the sheen being worn off the Malick-as-reclusive-genius reputation.  That’s neither here nor there but I have to say that The New World, to this day, has a certifiable underdog status attached to its name.  The positive outcome from all of this shoulder shrugging is a staggering output of passionate and insightful writing from a handful of film critics.  The New World was the Margaret of the pre-twitter world in that Malick did eventually put out an extended director’s cut some years later on DVD.  Although I doubt the small contingent of supporters had anything to do with Malick’s decision the same way #teammargaret convinced Fox Searchlight to splurge on Lonnergan’s director’s cut.  I doubt Malick even knows what the Internet is.  I kid, I kid, what I was getting at was a roundabout way of introducing the idea that my first viewing of The New World at the Lincoln Center Loews (or whatever corporation owns it now) in late ’05 would turn out to be as mythic and elusive as the film itself.  The cut screened that day was part of New Line’s limited release awards qualifying run and ran 150 minutes.  In what turned out to be a fruitless gesture considering the film only garnered a single nomination, that cut quickly vanished and was replaced by the 135 minute wide release cut that became the official theatrical release version of the film.  That cut subsequently made it to DVD with little to no mention of that mysterious limited release cut; it had all but vanished from the collective consciousness.  Flash-forward to the fall of ’08 and seemingly out of the fog emerges a 172-minute “Extended Cut” exclusive to DVD.  So now we have three different versions of the same film, one of which has vanished into thin air and will never be seen again.  The point of all this is to illuminate the sole analytical observation I have to make about the The New World, which is that the film is best appreciated as a body of water.  It flows, it expands, it contracts, and it connects to and is shaped by every living thing, which comes into its sphere of existence.  And like a body of water, there are images that appear in its reflection that you think you see but then vanish within a moment of your recognition.  For example, I know there are distinct differences between the three cuts but if you asked me to point them out sight unseen, I don’t think I’d have the ability to do so.  The fact that I’ll probably never see the 150-minute cut again only adds to the mysterious and baffling visual schematics of Malick’s work.  In capturing a vision of a creation myth that is unwedded to any kind of pre-ordained destiny, as though the characters themselves are more aware than we are of the historical nature of their tale, Malick presents America (and the world for that matter) as a place whose promise lies just up the river.  Which is not to say that it is impossible to grasp, on the contrary, Captain Smith at one point acknowledges that the time he spent in the forest with Pocahontas at first felt like a dream, only to turn out to be the most real thing he ever knew.  Another interesting comparison to make is between two impeccably precise and contrasting observations made about tress in this film and in The Thin Red Line.  In Line, Nick Nolte’s growling Lt. Col. Tall remarks to the more pacifist oriented Capt. Starros, “Look at this jungle. Look at those vines, the way they twine around, swallowing everything. Nature's cruel, Staros.”  In The New World, on the other hand, Pocahontas’ English tutor Mary explains, “think of a tree, how it grows around its wounds.  If a branch breaks off, it don’t stop, but keeps reaching towards the light.”  That’s not to suggest that either sentiment completely sums up their perspective films, but it indicates to me that while The Thin Red Line may acknowledge the destructive power of our civilization, The New World is much more interested in the promise of it.