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Rent Movie.com movie reviews presents The New World movie review a 2006 film starring Colin Farrell, Q’Orianka Kilcher and directed by Terrence Malick A Terrence Malick-scripted drama about explorer John Smith and the clash between Native Americans and English settlers in the 17th century. When 17th century explorer John Smith and a few men go up the river to trade with the Indians, he befriends the princess Pocahontas and they fall in love. While in love, Smith must obtain his duties as president of Jamestown fort and challenges to himself what is the better path for himself to take: stay with the fallen apart colony or go up the river and love Pocahontas in the wild. The Indians realize that the English do not mean to leave, so they attack. A few men at the fort decide to capture Pocahontas as a hostage so the Indians will not attack them. Smith is ordered to leave Jamestown by the King, and John Rolfe, a wealthy tobacco planter arrives at the fort. Pocahontas, now living there adapts to the English cultures and falls in love with Rolfe. She falls apart deciding who she is dedicated to, Smith or Rolfe. The legend of Pocahontas and John Smith receives a luminous and essential retelling by maverick filmmaker Terrence Malick. The facts of Virginia’s first white settlers, circa 1607, have been told for eons and fortified by Disney’s animated films: explorer Smith (Colin Farrell) and the Native American princess (newcomer Q’orianka Kilcher) bond when the two cultures meet, a flashpoint of curiosity and war lapping interchangeably at the shores of the new continent. Malick, who took a twenty year break between his second and third films (Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line), is a master of film poetry; the film washes over you, with minimal dialogue (you see characters speak on camera for less than a quarter of the film). The rest of the words are a stream-of-consciousness narration–a technique Malick has used before but never to such degree, creating a movie you feel more than watch. The film’s beauty (shot in Virginia by Emmanuel Lubezki) and production design (by Jack Fisk) seems very organic, and in fact, organic is a great label for the movie as a whole, from the dreadful conditions of early Jamestown (it makes you wonder why Englishman would want to live there) to the luminescent love story. Malick is blessed with a cast that includes Wes Studi, August Schellenberg, Christopher Plummer, and Christian Bale (who, curiously, was also in the Disney production). Fourteen-year-old Kilcher, the soul of the film, is an amazing find, and Farrell, so often tagged as the next big thing, delivers his first exceptional performance since his stunning debut in Tigerland. James Horner provides a fine score, but is overshadowed by a Mozart concerto and a recurring prelude from Wagner’s Das Rheingold, a scrumptious weaving of horns fit to fuel the gentle intoxication of this film. Note: the film was initially 150 minutes, and then trimmed to 135 by Malick before the regular theatrical run. It was also the first film shot in 65mm since Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet. –Doug Thomas