ABSTRACT
Terrence Malick divides viewers like few other filmmakers can. Frequent voice-overs, muted dialogue, extended takes of nature, and abstract themes all contribute to the divisiveness of his films. The viewer who dislikes these aspects of Malick’s work will detest The New World. It possesses neither the relatively fast pace of The Thin Red Line nor the explicit metaphysical motivation of The Tree of Life. For those interested in historical depictions, Malick remains typically muted in his emphasis; he does not right the wrongs within history. How, then, does one approach a Malickian historical film like The New World, where the subject seems to be neither metaphysics nor history? Initially the response might be romance; after all, the Pocahontas-John Smith narrative has entertained readers for generations. However, Malick has as little interest in this interpretation as he does in one of historical accuracy. A provisional answer lies in the figure of Pocahontas herself as she guides the film from beginning to end; her voice-over animates the narrative, and her death concludes it. So how does the viewer encounter the figure of Pocahontas? Is she, in Malick’s hands, the ingénue in a revisionist tale of love, or is she a symbol presaging the acquisitive and the destructive inclinations of the colonial West?
