Sid’s Salon – Sid keeps the classic films coming!
The New World –– U.S. Terrence Malick Malle   2005, 172 minutes  

Wednesday, December 11, 6:00pm. Address given with RSVP.

Sid Says: I first saw this wonder filled Malick film when it came out, then watched it again at home. What most impressed me both times was the film’s opening: the arrival of the full-sailed English ships in the small bay where Jamestown was established, watched by Native Americans hiding in the grass, mystified and terrified by the ghostly ships.  What followed was both tense with anticipation of violence and amusing as the heavily armored English and the ferociously painted Algonquin touch each other with curiosity and apprehension. Malick holds this scene for what seems like an hour, the tension thick, the emotions intense between these two peoples, strange and unknown to each other.  Even more strange for Pocohantas was the world she was introduced to ultimately by John Rolfe  (Christian Bale).

Malick brought Native Americans from all over the country to the shooting site, which was as close as possible geographically to the location of the original Jamestown settlement, and had them study the dialect of Algonquin was used by Native Americans on the central east coast.  He also built a replica of the original settlement using wood only from the local trees. As a result, and because of Malick’s directorial genius, we are transported in time back to the original Jamestown, located in an inlet off Chesapeake Bay.

It is an astonishing recreation of a place from the past. But it is also a poetic depiction of what happens between two peoples (men and women?) who are completely unknown to each other. Through Emmanuel Lubezki’s always-moving camera, and characters who say more in narration than they do in dialogue, the film creates a dreamlike meditation on centuries old human emotions––from fear to trust to suspicion to betrayal. And also to love. After a wonderful scene in which Pocahontas (O’orianka Kilcher) and John Smith (Colin Farrell) teach each other words, Smith draws closer to Pocahontas’ people.  Malick uses Smith’s words spoken directly to us to poetically express his feelings––our feelings?––for the beautiful young woman, certainly, and for much more perhaps.  “Love, shall we deny it when it visits us? Shall we not take what we are given? There is only this. All else is unreal.”

As with many of Malick’s later works, this film is an experience you must enter, letting it carry you through its scenes of fierce reality and magical poetry.

RSVP:   https://nextsf.helpfulvillage.com/events/764