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Rating:  - 65 mm Malick
Just to be clear, the movie was great, I enjoyed the story aspect more watching it at home, and the visual in the theaters, but movie theater sound just does not cater to poetic and somber dialog like this. Sidenote: only certain scenes were shot in 65mm format. It is incorrectly stated above that the entire movie was shot in 65mm, and in the end it does not matter since no venues really project 70mm anymore, it was resize down to 35mm for theater projection; because 70mm projection aspect ratio is typically, 2.00:1 or 2.10:1 not 2.35:1 which The New World clearly displays. But don't let this small technicality take away from your enjoyment of a beautifully filmed and directed movie.
Rating: - A Cinematic Experience
There are historical movies that reflect the times they were made in. For example, 1953's Knights of the Round Table, with Robert Taylor as Lancelot and Ava Gardner as Guinevere, is laughably awful. Sure there's Technicolor and pageantry and Miklos Rozsa's score, but that version of the often-filmed legend stinks to high heaven. On the other hand, we have a masterpiece like 1959's BEN-HUR, which richly deserved all the 11 Oscars it won at the Academy Awards. With the re-emergance of the widescreen process (originally premiered in 1930's THE BIG TRAIL) in the early 1950's, Hollywood scrambled to churn out one "historical" drama after another. Later on, with the disillusionment over Vietnam and such, we started to see more anti-establishment and politically correct slanted historical films.
Along comes director Terence Mallick, who graces us with THE NEW WORLD, a film that's more of an immersion into, an experience of the times than just a straightforward drama about the early days of the Jamestown settlement. How authentic is this? Check online and in the DVD's featurettes the research and lengths that Mallick went to in pursuing historical accuracy. Add to that his sense of visual poetry and you have, in my experience, the most incredibly beautiful and unique historical epic ever filmed.
I am so pleased that New Line has released this longer Director's Cut of Mallick's cinamtic masterpiece! Hopefully you'll be able to see this on a large screen TV with Dolby 5.1 sound - it's like nothing you've ever seen before! Enjoy!
Rating:  - Extended Version is Far Far Better
The 171 minute extended version is far better then the original 135 minute version. The extra 36 minutes are pretty evenly distributed through out the film from beginning to end and make the narrative such as it is much easiler to follow. There are also a few intertitles introducting various sections of the film. Pocahontas gets significantly more screen time so there is more oppportunity for her character to develop. If you recall the trailers for this film you may well remember many scenes which were simply not in the 135 minute version and I can tell you most of them are now in the extended version. Overall a big improvement though those who really hated the film probably still won't be won over, but those in the middle may well give it a higher rating. Too bad there are not more films about about early American Colonial history and for that alone this movie is worth seeing at least once.
Rating: - The New World
I enjoyed this movie very much. The scenery was beautiful and I appreciated the camera work. The simplicity of their love was perfect. They didn't need words to communicate. I think a lot of people could learn form their relationship.
Rating:  - Flawed poetry
This is an art film (or "fillum," as the experts say). It's beautifully photographed, and the music by Mozart and Wagner add to the poetry of the movie. But the male lead, Colin Farrell, is unconvincing. Much of the dialogue by all is simply muttered (I lost about 40% of it). And the script is woefully inadequate when compared to the actual history of John Smith and John Rolfe. (In the movie, we never learn the name of the man who marries the native princess, nor do we hear her Indian name!) The film, even when cut, is painfully long, and sometimes even incoherent. This reminded me of the movie "2001". Critics loved it. Sensible people fell asleep.
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