Terrence Malick’s latest film, “The New World,” is a bit of an enigma, much like the reclusive director himself.
It is one of the most beautifully-photographed films in recent memory, a true visual masterpiece indeed.
Malick, using similar techniques from his last film, “The Thin Red Line,” uses images to tell his stories, and he does it better than most, save for filmmaking legends Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick.
In “The New World” the director tells the story of explorer John Smith (Colin Farrell, much better here than in last year’s stinker “Alexander”) and his encounter with Pocahontas (Q’Orianka Kilcher in her film debut) during the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in 17th Century Virginia.
Malick uses every single frame of film to show the audience a gorgeous shot, the most memorable coming early when the camera is underwater looking up at Pocahontas’s tribe as they see the English ships docking on the river.
As I mentioned earlier, this film carries with it similar techniques like those used in “The Thin Red Line,” which I disliked the first time I saw it but now consider it to be one of the best films of 1998 after repeated viewings.
Wandering, almost poetic narration, is spoken at great lengths throughout the film by the main characters.
Long sequences go on in which very little dialogue is spoken at all.
While the visual aspect of “New World” is first-rate, the drama is less than the stellar.
Besides the romantic drama between Smith, Pocahontas, and John Rolfe (Batman himself, Christian Bale), there is also the drama between the English and the Natives as they try to live together in Virginia, but none of it comes together by the film’s conclusion.
What Malick wants us to take from his version of this famous old story is that the English not only invaded the land of “the Naturals” as they call them, they also invaded on nature and the way in which the Native Americans lived in harmony with their surroundings.
“The New World” is also incredibly slow-paced, which is okay given the amount of effort put into the look of the film.
I just wish Malick could find more for his actors to do while they stand around in such stunning backgrounds.

Reach Erik McClanahan at EMMcclan1841@winona.edu.