I've been looking forward to his movie for a while now - the idea of retelling the story of John Smith and the first colonists in a serious movie was something I wanted to see - so was it any good? Well yes I thought so - despite it being a bit like a fake European movie of the 1970s and being pretty unfathomable at times it was a good experience watching it. There was a lot of long quiet bits inside action sequences, jumpcuts and the usual tricks of arty cinema. It still is enjoyable though despite the fact that the story is basic to the extreme.
The natives are well choreographed and looked the part - the love scenes tender and set to a Schubert-like score of piano. The soldiers looked like they were styled on Aguirre Wrath of God's Conquistadors (steel flecked with blood and mud).
Historically it was pretty accurate from what I saw and what I know though I think there was a little too much armour in the ranks of the colonists. I can't imagine crossbows or bucklers being used then which were depicted in the film though all the armour was at least in period. A fight is depicted when Farrell is wearing a cuirassier bascinet, something that while technically possible in the period but looked wrong and too medieval ( being only worn by heavy cavalry - sort of like someone running around in the jungles of Vietnam in a helicopter pilots outfit). So I think that Mallick was probably trying to emulate the look of Conquistadors with the look of the settlers. Visually it borrow a lot from Werner Herzog's movie (see pic) showing the decay and infighting of the intruders in a brooding malevolent way.
Linguistically the film is interesting - lots of unsubtitled Native language and the settlers were all mumbling away in Mummerset enough to make you wish they were subtitled too. Farrell seems to drop his Irish accent in favour of a Casualty Bristolish accent only to return to his Native Ireland before the end of the sentence. A lot of the dialogue has the feel of theatrical rehearsals rather than actual acting - the verite style of Mallick looks as if he filmed the improvisation rather than the finished version. Most of this babble is obviously intended to be irrelevant as obviously only the odd words uttered by Farrell were supposed to have any significance. I felt sorry for the girl acting the P-Princess - she was acting and dancing her socks off in a lot of scenes while the Irish Brad Pitt simply sneered or curled his lip.
Pocahontas - not that they ever use the P word during the film - is pretty striking - I think she must be a ballet dancer - she moves very gracefully and looks the part. The character actors in the background are good but Farrell - who has to be 'playing' the only man in the 17th century with a pony tail - is boring and his 'rebel colonist' persona unbelievable.
Enjoyable movie - worth a trip to the cinema, but watch Aguirre Wrath of God first
(picture left is of Klaus Kinski in this German movie set duiring the Conquest of Peru)
New World movie site
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