I saw Terrence Malick’s The New World twice last month, and my report on the film’s junket should be online before the film goes into wide release this Friday. A few weeks ago, however, it was revealed that the version opening across the continent this weekend will be about 16 minutes shorter than the version which played for one week in L.A. at the end of the year. So, in writing on this film, I have had to be somewhat vague about its contents, commenting on it more generally and avoiding specific details which may or may not have survived the editing process.
Now I find out that Malick has not only taken footage out of the movie, but has put new footage into it. David Poland reports:
This version, it seems to me, is far more accessible for those who are on the fence. There is less lingering, especially in the first act, before Farrell’s John Smith returns to the fort built by the English settlers. But the change is more profound than that. There is more of Q’Orianka Kilcher’s Pocahontas/Rebecca in this one. In fact, for those of us who were waiting to see if Ms. Kilcher would be awards bait, this version of the film may well have pushed her into a serious Best Actress candidacy. Instead of building a world around this charming young woman of few words, the new version puts her and her passions more front and center. In the previous version, there were transitional moments that just didn’t quite click, lacking narrative support. Now, when Rebecca goes through the process of learning the English ways, we can understand exactly what her motivations are… and as a result, we feel what she feels as a woman, not as an icon from a larger story.
There are new images in this, the release version. Most are minor as stand-alone moments. But in the context of the whole, they change things dramatically. For instance, there is no doubt in this version that John Smith and Pocahontas consummated their “marriage” as there was before. Also, the development of the relationship between Rebecca and John Rolfe is much clearer here. Everything now fits in the story of a woman going through an extraordinary life with strong cultural overtones above and beyond.
There is a press screening of this film coming up, and until now I had been inclined to skip it — I’ve got a busy week, and I figured I’d already seen the more “complete” version twice, after all. But now, I dunno, I may have to make time to see this new version.
Incidentally, Poland also writes:
There is also rumor of a third version, at 3 hours, though there is some doubt on the actual existence of that cut from some who are close to the situation.
I don’t know who those “some” people are, but I was at the junket, interviewing the producer and a few of the film’s stars, and they certainly seemed to think that this three-hour version existed — or, perhaps rather, will exist when the DVD comes out.
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