The New World (2005) - Exquisite images in hard-to-take Malick drama

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+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year

Swept in cloudy skies, violence and romance are promised on this muted colored poster for Terrence Malick's The New World

As strange ships arrive from the East in 1608, Pocahontas and her tribes' lives are soon changed forever.

The New World is written and directed by Illinoisan master filmmaker Terrence Malick (Badlands (1973)), whose 4th feature it is.

It is a film that divides its audiences sharply. Those who see the light in The New World really see the light in it. There is no question that Emmanuel Lubezki's (The Harvest (1993)) photography is exceptionally beautiful and that James Horner's (Flightplan (2005)) score is commendable, (although little of the music in the film is actually Horner's, due to Malick's unconventional way of working.)

Malick's nature-romantisizing and pseudo-poetical style in a film where, for the longest stretches of it, nothing seems to happen, are deeply aggravating to me. Colin Farrell (Ondine (2009)) as Captain John Smith is mostly inexplicable in terms of the film's plot and stands back as eye-candy in a pompous, women's magazine style drama.

Related posts:

Terrence Malick: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

The Tree of Life (2011) or, Mother, Father, Sharks, Dinosaurs, My Brothers, Sunflowers, the Desert, the Wind and Me 

2005 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Badlands (1973) or, Kit and Holly in Love

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 30 mil. $

Box office: 49.3 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.64 times its cost)

[The New World premiered 25 December (US) and runs 136 minutes, with the first limited release version running 150 minutes. Malick had been working on the script for the film since the late 1970s. When his planned Che Guevara film failed to materialize, he instead found support for this film. Shooting took place from July - November 2004 in England and Virginia. The film opened #44 to a 30k $ first weekend in 3 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #9 and in 811 theaters, grossing 12.7 mil. $ (25.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 3.9 mil. $ (7.9 %) and Italy with 3.5 mil. $ (7.1 %). The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Cinematography, lost to Dion Beebe for Memoirs of a Geisha. It also won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 4/4 star review, translating to 4 notches over this one. Horner was deeply unsatisfied with his collaboration with Malick, who cut and edited his film right up the time of release, leaving little room for the long score Horner had devised: "I never felt so let down by a filmmaker in my life", he has said. The Pocahontas-Smith romance is usually considered to be a fictional invention, as Pocahontas would have been 12, when she first met Smith. Malick returned with The Tree of Life (2011). Farrell returned in Ask the Dust (2006); Q'orianka Kilcher (The Alienist (2018, TV-series)), who plays Pocahontas, returned in Princess Kaiulani (2009). The New World is fresh at 63 % with a 6.80/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of The New World?

Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

1. In Darkness/W Ciemności (2011) - Agnieszka Holland

2. Casino (1995) - Martin Scorsese

3. The Impossible/Lo Imposible (2012) - J. A Bayona

4. Badlands (1973) - Terrence Malick

5. The Sessions (2012) - Ben Lewin 

6. The Good Lie (2014) - Philippe Falardeau

7. Pride (2014) - Matthew Warchus

8. Beautiful Boxer/บิวตี้ฟูล บ๊อกเซอร์ (2004) - Ekachai Uekrongtham 

9. Bernie (2011) - Richard Linklater

10. The Intouchables/Intouchables/Untouchable (2011) - Eric Toledano; Olivier Nakache

Other masterpiece true story movie reviewed by Film Excess

The Boy in the Plastic Bubble (1976, TV movie)

Other great true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetical order)

Argo (2012) 
The Believer (2001) 
Bloody Sunday (2002) 
The Conjuring (2013) 
The Danish Girl (2015) 
The Desperate Hours (1955) 
Donnie Brasco (1997) 
Kon-Tiki (2012)
Lone Survivor (2013)
Machine Gun Preacher (2011)
Moneyball (2011) 
Spotlight (2015) 

Good true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetical order)

Animal Kingdom (2010) 
Behind Enemy Lines (2001) 
Bonnie and Clyde (1967) 
Bronson (2008) 
Capote (2005) 
Coach Carter (2005) 
Dallas Buyers Club (2013) 
Death of a Cheerleader (1994, TV movie)
Fruitvale Station (2013) 
Margin Call (2011) 
Mesrine: Killer Instinct + Mesrine: Public Enemy No. 1/Mesrine: L'Instinct de Mort + Mesrine: L'ennemi public n°1 (2008, two-part movie) 
Timbuktu (2014)

Mediocre or poor true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date (in alphabetical order)

Big Miracle (2012) 
The Bling Ring (2013) 
Bloodsport (1988) 
Blow (2001) 
The Changeling (2008) 
Chisum (1970) 
Domino (2005) 
Gangster Squad (2013) 
The Iceman (2012) 
The Monuments Men (2014) 
The Revenant (2015) 
This Life/Hvidsten Gruppen (2012) 

[47 titles in all]

Previous Top 10 lists:

The best action movies reviewed by Film Excess to date  
The best adapted movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best adventure movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
The best B/W movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 

What do you think of the list?
Which true story movies would be on yours?   

The Tree of Life (2011) or, Mother, Father, Sharks, Dinosaurs, My Brothers, Sunflowers, the Desert, the Wind and Me

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1 Time Film Excess Nominee:

Best Non-adult Actor: Laramie Eppler, Hunter McCracken, Tye Sheridan (lost to Amara Miller for The Descendants)

+ Best Art Film of the Year

25 frames from Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, showing its apparent ambition to include everything in life in its 'tale'

The unusual, poetic Illinois-born director Terrence Malick (Badlands (1973)) won the Palme d'Or in Cannes in 2011 with his 5th feature, The Tree of Life, which is a visual meditation on the circumstances of life on earth, from beginning to end, more or less.
Talking about 'the plot' in Tree seems incorrect, since it truly isn't a plot film. But it does have a core story of sorts, even though it is never fully illuminated:
A family in 50s Waco, Texas: A kind, all-embracing mother, an authoritarian and often away father and three sons. The older one develops a conflict with himself and his attitude towards the mix of ideals at home. The parents fight and finally move out of Waco.
Linked to the 'plot' is one of the sons, who walks around New York in the present day and thinks back on his childhood. He is played by Sean Penn (Milk (2008)), who has later said that he didn't understand the film. This is understandable, and he surely has the strangest role in the film; with hardly any lines, he just walks around the cityscape looking confused, lost and/or contemplative. He walks in a desert, he walks on a beach. Penn looks sulky or depressed, and that seems to be his role. It's not a great part, even if Penn is accomplished at looking blue; I understand if he left Tree with an apprehensive head-shaking.
On the other hand, the 50s level has great roles, and great acting by everyone there; Brad Pitt (Fight Club (1999)) is impressively credible as the father; Jessica Chastain (The Help (2011)) beautifully portrays the mother, who tries to instill female sensitivity in her sons but sometimes must accept that they are male.
And the boys who play brothers are simply incredible. How Malick gets this level of authenticity out of such young actors is amazing to me. They are Tye Sheridan (Mud (2013)), Hunter McCracken and Laramie Eppler. Their faces and bodies are just so alive and so true in their scenes. There are also great scenes of scores of kids playing in a playground etc., and I thought that the scenes with the kids were the best thing in Tree. So evocative of childhood, so true and so rare. Magnificent work here.
The cinematography is very organic and alive in Tree without ever feeling stressed. It is accomplished by the bold, talented Emmanuel Lubezki (The Children of Men (2006)).

Jessica Chastain and Tye Sheridan are mother and son in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life

The details:

The film is stuffed with nature, chemistry and the universe. The 'story' comes in drops and isn't concerned with hooking its audience, before the film blurs out in poetic imagery. These lengthy passages can be likened to some of 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) and little else that I have ever seen. Malick is still very unique as a filmmaker. It is visually quite stunning. But perhaps hurried?
The pacing is very fast, so we jump through explosions, volcanoes, organisms, dinosaurs and sharks in few minutes, while the narration is carrying out a kind of one-way conversation with God/poem. Though interesting to look at, these passages were not my main interest in Tree.
I feel that something is missing in the film. Because it is The Tree of Life, supposedly an all-encompassing rendition of life, I feel it slights several aspects of life, and I have to criticize that: Death, sex and waste to name three of the foremost things in life. Death is hinted at a few times; sex and waste are non-existent. Illness is hinted at. Killing, - even killing to survive in nature, - is erased.
In this light, Tree is not a serious film about life.
Rather it is a highly pleasing, aesthetically speaking, very lyrical and poetic film with some very fine 50s scenes. (And some mysticism, like Chastain suddenly floating around in the air.)
But essentially escapist, and seemingly not serene about this fact.
Malick's journey as a director is very interesting. From his masterpiece feature debut Badlands (1973), he took long to follow it up with Days of Heaven (1978) and then incredibly long to follow that up with the great The Thin Red Line (1998), - for which he was twice Oscar-nominated. He then made The New World (2005), a beautiful but strained and pretentious look at the exploration and 'civilizing' of America. After Tree, - for which he was again Oscar-nominated as Best Director, - he has quit being the incredibly slow director; releasing To The Wonder (2012) to down-turned thumbs almost everywhere, and this year, Knight of Cups, a story about fame and excess with Christian Bale and a long line of other famous actors. He even has a second film coming out in 2014, Voyage of Time, a film that seems close to Tree but without any plot level. This has spurred rumors that Malick might be dying, although this is just speculation. The recluse director is notorious for his unwillingness to give interviews himself, so, naturally, we don't know for sure what is the reason for Malick's sudden escalating productivity.

Related posts:

Terrence Malick: 2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
Badlands (1973) or, Kit and Holly in Love

Brad Pitt and Laramie Eppler as father and son in Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life

Watch the trailer for the film here and try not to get goose-pimples. Impossible. Visually, Malick's films are incredible, and Tree of Life is no exception.

Budget: 32 mil. $
Box office: 54.3 mil. $
= Minor success

What do you think of The Tree of Life?
What do you think is the deal with Malick's many movies now?

Badlands (1973) or, Kit and Holly in Love

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This original poster for Terrence Malick's Badlands has a provocative tagline that was referred to by the San Francisco Zodiac killer in one of his letters at the time

In late-50s Texas, a 15 year-old, simple-minded girl begins to talk to a local garbage man. He loses his job, they fall in love, and before they know it, the girl's father is shot, and the young couple are outlaws on the run.

 
In my 'book', Badlands beats the topically similar classic Bonnie and Clyde (1967), - and all director Terrence Malick's (The Thin Red Line (1998)) other films, - because it is sharper and more pungent in its social realism, and its characters are more easily recognizable and credible, less iconographic and larger-than-life, and also, the film is simply incredibly enveloping to watch. The moods created in the film and its poetic quality is breathtaking. The story is based on a real couple on a killing spree in Dakota in 1959.
Martin Sheen (Apocalypse Now (1979)) could be termed the ultimate American as Kit here, pressed to the edge, fighting his own fight for himself; and Sissy Spacek (The Straight Story (1999)) plays as strongly as the adorable opportunist Holly, whom he sweeps off with. Badlands also portrays American society's mixed feelings of fascination and contempt for the renegades and outlaws with great precision.
SPOILER Especially the scene of Sheen's Kit-character's visit at a job center got to me.
But Badlands has countless strong and incredible scenes.
It is a marvelous, strong, vibrant cinematic masterpiece.

Related post:

Top 10: The best true story movies reviewed by Film Excess to date

 

Watch the film's awesome, original trailer here

Budget: 0.5 mil. $
Box office: Unknown
= Uncertain

What do you think of Badlands?
Why does America have this infatuation with murderous outlaws?