Imagine a poem about a loss of innocence, the beginnings of the end of a once great civilization, about the love between two people whose peoples will go to war. Imagine a beautiful poem that resonates deep inside you. Imagine closing your eyes and seeing that poem. That is The New World by Terrence Malick. The closest analogy i can come to is how sin city captured the feeling and look of what a comic book truly is, is what the new world does for poetry. it is visual poetry. the narrative is completely structured like a poem, as strange as that sounds, it works beautifully, at least i thought it did.

i saw an advance screening of it and just heard the wide release is being cut by 17 minutes. i thought it was just a touch long, so the cuts might be helpful, but i cant imagine what he would cut out, as all the imagery was just so breathtaking.

ok, enough raving, the story is about john smith and pocahontas, played by newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher (of indian/swiss background, related to the singer jewel) and is incredible. collin ferrel plays john smith and christian bale plays john rolfe. everyone gives great performances, but there is just something about christian bale. he is defn one of those actors who can communicate at least as much, if not FAR more emotion by not saying anything as he can with words. defn one of my fav actors (plus he played my idol batman and was the best one ever, so i cant really say anything bad about the guy!) i didnt know the entire pocahontas story (at least malick's interpretation of it) so wont give anything away other than this is definitely a movie to experience for movie lovers. although, if you don't like malick's movies, you probably won't like this one either.

it is NOT the conventional narrative, it is NOT a typical story, it truly is a poem brought to life on screen. highly highly highly reccomended. one of my top 5 of the year. up there with crash and munich as maybe my top 3.

peace
k2