The arrival of English colonials in America and their first interactions with the Natives is explored through the establishment of the Jamestown settlement and both the mythological and historical association between Pocahontas and John Smith, in this legitimately transcendent film starring Colin Farrell, Christian Bale, Christopher Plummer, and newcomer Q'orianka Kilcher.
Terrence Malick, despite having made only four films in 35 years (his fifth, Tree of Life, is set for release in 2010), is one of the true icons of the New Hollywood era. After years studying and teaching philosophy at such institutions as Harvard, Oxford, and M.I.T., he found quick success with his first two features, Badlands and Days of Heaven, only to go on a 20-year hiatus from filmmaking before releasing The Thin Red Line in 1998, which reclaimed his position as a high-ranking cinematic visionary. Malick's style is notable for its powerful images of a meditative and reflective quality, with a tendency to place his main characters on an equal level with their environment, often cutting away from the story to unrelated images of nature. In addition, he favors narration to express the thoughts of his characters over standard exposition-based dialogue.
An effort was made to maintain as much authenticity in the production as possible, with many Native American-advisers involved in recreating rituals and customs as well as teaching the Algonquin language to actors. Natural light was used exclusively, and the actors heavily researched their historic counterparts. What emerges is not something as elusive as the definitive truth behind the characters or events, or a didactic product of white liberal guilt, but an immersive, sensual experience that feels, looks, and sounds faithful to what it is attempting to portray, and leaves one with an empathy for all involved, as well as a sense of wonder.
The film's top of the line crew includes production designer and frequent Malick collaborator Jack Fisk (There Will Be Blood, Mulholland Dr), cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Children of Men, Sleepy Hollow), composer James Horner (TItanic, Braveheart) and editor Richard Chew (Star Wars, The Conversation), all Oscar nominees or winners. In addition to Horner's original score, Malick implemented epochal works by Mozart and Wagner.
Originally appearing December of 2005 in a handful of theatres in a 150-minute cut, Malick pulled the film to continue editing, resulting in a cut that ran fifteen minutes shorter (and also featured footage not in the first edit), which was sent into wide release nearly a month later. In late 2008, an extended cut by Malick running 170 minutes was released on DVD, which is the version which will be screening this week.
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