English 270-1

Professor Erkkilä
Winter 2018

THE NEW WORLD (2005)

Director: Terrence Malick

Script: Terrence Malick
Photography: Emmanuel Lebezki

Main Performers:
Captain John Smith: Colin Farrell
Pocahontas: Q’orianka Kilcher
Captain Newport: Christopher Plummer
John Rolphe: Christian Bale
Powhatan: August Schellenberg
Opechancanough: Wes Studi
Wingfield: David Thewlis
Capt. Argall: Yorick Van Wagenigen

Critical Commentary:

Malick doesn’t just ponder the contradiction between harmonizing with and prevailing
over nature. He explores it within the very fabric of his film, testing whether cinema itself
can function as an organic part of the natural world. He thus questions the widely held
assumption that film’s essential purpose is to capture and record reality (therefore
‘dominating’ reality) rather than to blend with reality in a seamless, harmonious whole.
(David Sterrit, Chronicle of Higher Education)

The flow from person to man-made object to nature and back again is the regular rhythm
of Malick’s editing, and the contrast between the finite human drama and the ongoing
drama of light, air, earth, and water is never less than palpable. (Film Comment)

Questions for Consideration:

(1)What aspects of John Smith’s General History of Virginia does Malick retain and
what significant changes does he make in translating the arrival at Jamestown, the
relations between the English settlers and the “naturals,” and the story of Pocahontas and
John Smith?

(2)How does Malick use photography, setting, props, lighting, costume, sound, and figure
behavior in the opening scene of arrival in Jamestown in 1607 to represent fundamental
differences between the “naturals” and the English settlers? How does he represent the
values and point of view of Native inhabitants here and elsewhere in the film?
(3)What aspects of First Contact does the film emphasize when the Native inhabitants
first confront the English strangers in their land? Why is Pocahontas drawn to John
Smith?

(4)How historically accurate is the film’s representation of Smith’s captivity and rescue
by Pocahontas? What particular aspects of this scene does the film emphasize through
mise en scène, cinematography, edits, and sound?

(5)What is the difference between the historical John Smith’s attitude toward native
inhabitants and Smith’s vision in The New World? How does the film represent the
developing relation between Pocahontas and Smith? What particular aspects of their
relationship does Malick emphasize? What is the role of nature, play, language,
cinematography, sound, and voice over in representing their relationship?

Learning language together. Slowly more physical contact. John starts to emote more.
Etc.

(6)What differences do you notice between Smith’s experience among the Natives and
his experience on returning to the Fort? What aspects of the starving time does the film
emphasize? Why does Pocahontas rescue the colony?

Natives: Bright, lively, colorful, vibrant, edifying, full of wonder

Fort: Dreary, cold, gray, people kill each other cuz they’ve spent too much time together

She loves Smith

(7) When Pocahontas asks Smith why he hasn’t returned to her, he says “You don’t know
who I am?” Do we know who Smith is? Notice how his decision to leave is represented
visually. Why does Smith decide to leave? What is the effect of this decision on
Pocahontas? What is the symbolic significance of Smith’s departure and his desire that
Pocahontas be told he was drowned at sea?

She doesn’t understand how he has a career and stuff. The person he was with her isn’t
the person he is on the job. She doesn’t understand the intricacies of how he lives and
such. Doesn’t want it to be a betrayal but more of symptoms of circumstance.

(8) Does Pocahontas experience a similar death when she is sent away by her father
Powhatan, sold to the settlers for a kettle, and abandoned by Smith? Note the recurrent
use of doorways and window frames to frame Pocahontas and other characters in the
film. How might we interpret this recurrent motif?

(9)What is the significance of the fact that John Rolphe narrates the final part of the film?
What is Rolphe’s relation with Pocahontas? “Who are you? What do you dream of?”
Rolphe asks. Does he ever get to know her? Why does Pocahontas marry Rolphe? What
do you think she dreams of?
Rolphe finally became the envoy between Pocahontas and whites. Hes serving as the go
between instead of smith

(10) What is Pocahontas’s response to England? How is her response represented?

In awe. The same music that the first settlers has comes back

(11) How are we to read her final meeting with Smith and the end of the film? Does she
ever fully acculturate to English society? Might the final scene be read as a “metaphysical
arrival”?