Chad’s Grade: B+
One of the more enigmatic figures of American history has been Pocahontas, the daughter of the Powhatan chief who, in 1607, befriended John Smith and the first English settlers at Jamestown, Virginia. Her story has been unofficially linked to Thanksgiving, although technically, she died some five years before the first recorded Thanksgiving by the Pilgrims in 1621. But there were reports that the Powhatan princess did attend a Jamestown “harvest” style festival in 1610 to celebrate the settlement’s survival of the harsh winter.
Over the years, the Pocahontas story has been warped and romanticized; as legend had it, the young princess and explorer John Smith embarked on a star-crossed love affair culminating in her saving Smith’s life from execution by her Powhatan tribe. Although most historians dispute that version, it was likely Smith beefing up his strapping explorer image. The reality is that Pocahontas was a curious and charismatic 13-year-old who charmed Smith and the Jamestown settlers, helping to broker an uneasy, peaceful dialogue between the native Powhatans and the European invaders. She even brought much-needed supplies to the settlers during that crippling first winter, with reports that Jamestown would not have survived without her and the Powhatan’s aid.
Of course, Hollywood played a part in pushing the Pocahontas/John Smith myths with various versions over the years. The most notorious being Disney’s well-intentioned but flawed 1995 animated take using their manufactured “princess” template, complete with talking animals and a soaring musical score. The Smithsonian produced an excellent 2017 documentary Pocahontas: Beyond the Myth, which is your best bet if you want the story with some historical context.
Splitting the difference was the 2005 feature The New World, a lush and lyrical retelling of the Pocahontas story written and directed by acclaimed filmmaker Terence Malick. The idiosyncratic director has a career stretching back to the 1970s with Badlands and Days of Heaven, then took 20 years off to return in 1998 with his War World II epic The Thin Red Line. Malick was passionate about making The New World and convinced Warner Bros and New Line Cinema to fork over a sizable budget to realize his vision. The result is a film full of dichotomies, much like the director himself, both a romanticized version of Pocahontas but steeped in accurate historical detail.
The New World tells the story of Pocahontas, portrayed as a beautiful, playful teenager, with the film split into two sections. The film’s first half shows the English settlers arriving off the coast of Virginia and setting up their Jamestown Fort. They send out John Smith to meet with the Powhatan tribe, where he is captured and almost executed until Pocahontas intervenes. The natives cautiously welcome Smith into their ranks, where he falls for the beautiful teenage princess. But relations break down as violence erupts between the natives and the colonizers, with Pocahontas banned from her tribe for helping the settlers and ultimately taken as a prisoner of Jamestown.
The second section of The New World shows Pocahontas’s transition to English life, where she changes her name to Rebecca and marries tobacco farmer John Rolfe. But her first romance with Smith hangs like a shadow over her new marriage, even as the two return to England. She is treated like a princess, meets with the King and Queen while saying goodbye to Smith, and tragically passes away at age 21.
Your enjoyment of The New World will depend on your opinion of Malick’s directorial flourishes, full of languid shots with hushed soliloquy-style voiceovers and loose narratives. When John Smith spends time in the Powhatan tribe and speaks in the old Algonquian language, the film takes on a documentary-style tone. The movie does an excellent job of presenting the POV from both the explorer and native perspectives, as Smith feels a connection with this unspoiled “new world” as Pocahontas is warmly curious about these strange invaders. Yes, these are well-worn tropes of Hollywood productions that feature native Americans from Dances with Wolves or the sci-fi variations of Avatar. But with Malick’s unique eccentricities, these cliches seem fresh and new.
The New World features a solid collection of actors, with newcomer Q’orianka Kilcher taking on the daunting role of the famed Powhatan princess. Kilcher is simply astonishing as Pocahontas, full of charisma and charm with girlish energy in the first section, then switching convincingly to the more subdued and mature woman in the second half. She is matched by Colin Farrell channeling a quiet and soulful energy as John Smith, nicely contrasting Christian Bale’s more earnest and grounded John Rolfe. I did enjoy seeing Christopher Plummer, David Thewlis, and an early appearance from Ben Mendelsohn amongst the Jamestown settlers. Yet, due to Malick’s loose narrative structure, they vanish midway through the picture.
But the film’s true star is the gorgeous, naturally lit cinematography from acclaimed lensman Emmanuel Lubezki. The great Lubezki, a frequent collaborator of Alfonso Cuaron, frames the on-location Virginia landscape like oil paintings full of detail and color. When Smith gazes out amongst the untouched landscapes, you can understand his soulful connection and the urge to explore. Lubezki also captures the minute details of production designer Jack Fisk’s historically researched sets, where the filmmakers recreated the Jamestown Fort based on the original blueprints. The result is an enormously immersive picture with breathtaking moments like the natives staring in fear and awe at the approaching English sailboats making their way into the Virginia harbor.
Director Malick was wise to keep the story focused mainly on Pocahontas’s relationship with her two “Johns.” As much as I enjoyed the lyrical romance with the handsome Smith, that first half does get bogged down by the “two worlds” colliding cliches. I found the second part of Pocahontas’s time with Rolfe far more interesting, watching her struggle to adapt to the English life where she changes her name to Rebecca. And Kilcher has better chemistry with Bale’s Rolfe, with their sweet romance shown as two outcast souls connecting. And I love how the film ends with Rolfe and Pocahontas traveling to England, where they meet the monarchy and is treated like royalty. It’s an interesting inversion of her circular story arc, where she is now the stranger in a strange land, saying farewell to John Smith and, ultimately, her old way of life.
I’m a reluctant fan of Terence Malick, even if his stylistic tics and overly long films try my patience, but The New World is probably his best and most coherent picture. The legend of Pocahontas has become a lightning rod of controversy in recent years, but this movie does a nice job of balancing the many aspects of this enigmatic figure. You get a luminous, romantic take on the John Smith relationship yet steeped in stunning period details, all done with some of the most beautiful images put on film. It’s a long movie, with the director’s cut clocking in at close to 3 hours, but worth every minute. And it makes for an interesting post-Thanksgiving dinner watch.
