"The New World"

Quote of the day:
“Never stay up on the barren heights of cleverness, but come down into the green valleys of silliness.”
--Ludwig Wittgenstein

Quote of the day no. 2:
"It was so lovely out in the country — it was summer! And the wheat was yellow, the oats were green, hay was stacked up in the green meadows, and the stork walked about on his long, red legs and spoke Egyptian, for he had learned the language from his mother."
--Hans Christian Andersen, from The Ugly Duckling.

Merrie is getting a little more active each day. It was a pleasantly slow day today. We walked to The Living Room for a couple hours this afternoon. It’s our favorite hangout, and it has wireless access.

We saw Terrence Malick’s 2005 film The New World the other day. It’s about the beginnings of Jamestown, the first English colony in America.

I’m always hesitant about period pieces, because so often they seem somehow affected or artificial. That is not the case with this film. Malick has done such a brilliant job with the look and all the details of the film it sometimes seems more like a documentary, filmed in 1607.

If you rent the DVD, I highly recommend the fascinating “making of” feature. When I saw it, I understood why the film seemed so authentic. Malick found a location just a few miles from the actual Jamestown settlement. He hired Indian actors and extras for all the Indian parts. They spent months together and they learned the Algonquin language and culture. He also secured the use of three period reproductions of the ships the English used.

Just like all his films, the visuals are amazing--stunning and real. The acting in the film is nuanced and sensitive. All the lead actors are well-cast, most especially Q’Orianka Kilcher, the 14-year-old who plays Pocahontas.

Terrence Malick is a bit of an acquired taste. People either find his films (such as Days of Heaven and The Thin Red Line) glacially slow and ponderous, or poetic, memorable and inspiring. I’m in the latter group, and this film is a fine example of his best work.