The New World

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Movie
German title The New World
Original title The New World
The New World.gif
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 2005
length 131 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
JMK 10
Rod
Director Terrence Malick
script Terrence Malick
production Sarah Green
Terrence Malick
music James Horner
camera Emmanuel Lubezki
cut Richard Chew
Hank Corwin
Saar Klein
occupation

The New World is a feature film made by the US director Terrence Malick in 2005 .

The adventure film is based on an original script by Malick, in which he was inspired by the well-known legend of Pocahontas . The main roles were played by Q'orianka Kilcher and Colin Farrell . The film was among others by the film studio New Line Cinema produced and officially launched on 25 December 2005 in the US. The German theatrical release was on March 2, 2006.

action

North America , around 1607: On a spring day in April, three English ships with a total of 103 men on board reached the east coast of North America. On behalf of the royal chartered Virginia Company , the men from distant England are supposed to establish a cultural, religious and economic base on the coast, which they see as the beginning of the New World . The flagship of the flotilla is the Susan Constant . Below the brig is the rebellious 27 year old John Smith . He is in chains and awaits his death sentence for refusing to obey , which is to be carried out as soon as the ship has reached land. The talented Smith is too popular with men to hang, and he is pardoned by Captain Christopher Newport when the Susan Constant drops anchor offshore. Captain Newport is certain that he is dependent on every capable man in the unknown wilderness.

The settlers enter the foreign land and establish the Jamestown settlement in honor of their King James I of England. First, friendly relations developed with the Native Americans under Chief Powhatan . But misunderstandings because of the linguistic and cultural barriers soon lead to tensions that grow stronger and lead to first struggles. John Smith, however, seeks support from the members of the Algonquian tribe , but is captured by warriors and taken prisoner to the chief. Just as he is about to be killed as a warning to the other Englishmen, a young girl stands between Smith and his executioner. The girl named Pocahontas is the chief's youngest daughter, and she persuades her father to spare Smith. Smith then gets to know the peaceful way of life of the natives and spends more and more time with Pocahontas, eventually both fall in love. This relationship worries Chief Powhatan more and more.

When winter sets in, John Smith and a group from Pocahontas' village return to Jamestown to bring food to the hungry Virginia Company men. But because of the lack of self-control of some English people, a dispute quickly arises again, which ultimately escalates into a bloody fight with many dead. Because Pocahontas helped Smith and his men out with food during the harsh winter, the chief exiled his daughter to her uncle in the north . There it is sold to the men of Jamestown for a copper kettle. They present them as hostages in order to force an end to the attacks on the settlement from their father. John Smith receives a new expedition assignment, he has to leave the colony and thus also Pocahontas. She is led to believe that Smith died on the crossing, which plunges her into deep sadness.

With each new ship visit, the colony continues to stabilize and grow gradually. Pocahontas is increasingly adopting the English way of life, even learning to read and write, and is finally baptized with the name "Rebecca". A few months later she accepted the marriage proposal of the plantation owner John Rolfe . Together they grow tobacco and will soon have children: their only son, Thomas.

After a few years, Pocahontas found out by chance that John Smith had by no means died, which made her doubt their marriage. When Rolfe and his family were invited to live with rich relatives in England, it came in handy and they agreed. They live there in a castle with a large park. “Lady Rebecca” becomes the talk of the town in London, even among the nobility. She is even invited to the royal court, where King James can be shown animals that she has brought from America. Above all, she is amazed at the large stone houses, the stained glass windows in the churches and also the music that she hears at the receptions. Pocahontas meets John Smith again, but decides to remain loyal to her husband. Together she and Rolfe plan to return to Virginia. But shortly before the planned departure, she falls seriously ill and dies. Rolfe starts the trip alone with his son Thomas.

History of origin

The film is based on the (historically unpopulated) liaison between the adventurer John Smith (1580-1631) and Pocahontas (1595-1617), a mediator between the tribes of the Algonquin - Confederation and the English colonists . Director Terrence Malick was inspired by this material and chose his own interpretation of the material. The main role of John Smith was cast by Irish actor Colin Farrell . After an intensive international search, the role of Pocahontas was filled with Q'orianka Kilcher , a daughter of a father who was born in Germany in 1990 and comes from the South American Huachipaeri and Quechua tribe. Her mother is a Swiss who grew up in Alaska. In addition to the cast to which u. a. Christian Bale and Christopher Plummer were joined by cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki ( Sleepy Hollow ), costume designer Jacqueline West ( The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen ) and production designer Jack Fisk , with whom Terrence Malick had already worked on his previous film The Thin Ridge (1998).

Filming of The New World began on July 26, 2004 on location in and around Jamestown, Virginia . Production costs are estimated at $ 30 million. The New World is the first film since 1997 that u. a. was shot on 65mm film. In contrast to the 35 mm standard material, the 65 mm film can record an image area that is more than three times as large and therefore has more detail and scope for larger enlargements, making it suitable for larger screens. The aspect ratio of 2.2: 1 is similar to that of the wide-walled Cinemascope , without having to use anamorphic lenses.

The film was originally supposed to open officially in US theaters in November 2005, but was then postponed and only opened on December 25, 2005 in selected theaters. Terrence Malick's film opened in Germany on March 2, 2006. In critical circles, the film was one of the extended favorites for the 78th Academy Awards, but was not considered in important film awards such as the Golden Globe Award or the British Academy Film Award .

According to Hanns-Georg Rodek ( Die Welt ), 15 quieter minutes were removed from the two and a half hour premiere version as a commercial compromise. A three-hour DVD version is "promised". The longest version of The New World - The Extended Cut of 172 minutes is already available in the United States and Canada ( region code 1).

Others

The intense kissing scenes between leading actor Colin Farrell, who was 28 years old at the time of the shooting, and his fourteen-year-old film partner Q'orianka Kilcher caused a stir during the shooting. The production company's lawyers feared the scenes might violate the child pornography law. So the sequences were shot again and Kilcher was replaced by another adult actress.

For the adventure film, director Terrence Malick postponed his film project Che by a year. Malick later stepped out of the planned biopic about Che Guevara and left the direction to his American compatriot Steven Soderbergh .

For supporting actor Christian Bale , Malick's The New World is not the first encounter with the legend of Pocahontas. In 1995, Bale dubbed the English sailor Thomas in the Disney cartoon Pocahontas .

In his 35-year career, The New World is only the fifth directorial work by Terrence after the short film Lanton Mills (1969) and the feature films Badlands - Zerschossene Träume (1973), In der Glut des Südens (1978) and Der schmale Grat (1998) Malick.

In one sequence, the extinct Caroline Parakeet is brought to life using computer animation.

Both the opening and closing scenes of the film are underlaid with the prelude to Richard Wagner's opera “ Das Rheingold ”, the melody also sounds several times to accompany the plot.

Reviews

The film received mostly positive reviews. Rotten Tomatoes received 116 positive and 70 negative reviews. Metacritic counted 27 positive, 11 mixed and no negative publications. On the Internet Movie Database page , 80,029 users received a weighted average rating of 6.7 out of 10.

"A moving, yet slowly progressive investigation into the Pocahontas myth."

- The Hollywood Reporter

“The English are building a fort in the mud, the Indians look on, confused; soon one will go to the throats of each other. Meanwhile, the pair of lovers romps through the forest, groping each other (but only on the face, because the Pocahontas actress Kilcher was only 14 at the time of shooting), is delighted with the magnificent nature and monologues in a sublime way. Unfortunately, unlike in Disney's cartoon version (1995), there is no singing. Instead, Richard Wagner's 'Rheingold' prelude and James Horner's fanfare kitsch roar from the sound track that shakes half of Virginia. Let's get out!"

- Spiegel Online

“Terrence Malick tells the historical encounter between the English colonist John Smith and the young Indian Pocahontas (1607) in elegiac sequences of scenes of singular visual power and poetry. Behind the individual story he discovers the drama of the world and civilization, symbolized in the mythical fatefulness of the clash of the 'old' and the 'new world'. A highly sensitive film in which the camera, editing and music play just as important a role as the actors. "

- film service

Awards

The film was nominated in three categories at the Online Film Critics Society Awards , while Emmanuel Lubezki was nominated for his cinematography at the Academy Awards on March 5, 2006 .

In 2016, The New World ranked 39th in a BBC poll of the 100 most important films of the 21st century .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Release certificate for The New World . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , February 2006 (PDF; test number: 105 182 K).
  2. ↑ Age rating for The New World . Youth Media Commission .
  3. ↑ Hanns-Georg Rodek : With Hegel in the New World. In: The world . March 2, 2006, accessed February 4, 2009 .
  4. ↑ Amazon , accessed February 4, 2009
  5. ↑ The New World at rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved January 23, 2020
  6. ↑ The New World at metacritic.com. Retrieved January 23, 2020
  7. ↑ The New World at imdb.com. Retrieved January 23, 2020
  8. ^ The New World on Spiegel Online of February 25, 2006, accessed January 4, 2012
  9. ^ The New World. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used