"Terrence Malick's "The New World" strips away all of the fancy and lore from the story of Pocahontas and her tribe and the English settlers at Jamestown, and imagines how new and strange these people must have seemed to one another.
If the Indians stared in disbelief at the English ships, the English were no less awed by the somber beauty of the new land and its people. They called the Indians "the naturals," little understanding how well the term applied.
Malick strives throughout his film to imagine how the two civilizations met and began to speak when they were utterly unknown to one another. We know with four centuries of hindsight all the sad aftermath, but it is crucial to "The New World" that it does not know what history holds. These people regard one another in complete novelty, and at times with a certain humility imposed by nature. The Indians live because they submit to the realities of their land, and the English nearly die because they are ignorant and arrogant."
Get the Story:History comes alive in beautiful `New World' (The Quad-City Times 1/20) Relevant Links:
The New World - http://www.thenewworldmovie.com Related Stories:
Chat online with Kilcher, 'New World' actress (12/22)
'The New World' set for debut in Hollywood (12/15)
Review: 'The New World' evocative and credible (12/13)
Variety: 'New World' promising but story falls short (12/13)
Native actress finds second family on Navajo Nation (09/13)
Lakota teen hopes to portray Pocahontas in new film (06/18)
Native actors joining cast of Pocahontas romance (05/20)