it's already out bubba, i've seen it on the shelves.

DAYS OF HEAVEN is a masterpiece and I'm anxiously awaiting the Criterion Blu-ray in 2010.

"Days of Heaven" - one of my all-time fave movies...some of the images in that film will never leave me.

There are two DVD releases of THE NEW WORLD -- one is of the version that was in general release in theaters, and the other is a longer Director's Cut.

The film went through a good deal of changes, I seem to remember. It was first shown to assorted critics at some film festival or other, and when it was released it had been trimmed. I'm sure more information can be gotten on wikipedia or some such.

p.s. A book Philip...did you say you were interested in a book? A book relatng to this theme of the movie I would recommend is The Other Side of Eden

Here are some links...

http://arcticcircle.uconn.edu/RelatedInf...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/people...

http://www.amazon.com/Other-Side-Eden-Hu...

I loved The New World much more than I thought I was going to for some reason. I love Mallick's movies...even though he has made so few...but they are all magically beautiful to me. I loved The Thin Red Line mentioned here as coming out around Saving Private Ryan.

Everyone here has mentioned things that stand out in Malick's movie. "the portrayal of nature" is a good phrase because it's as if nature does have a persona in his movies.

Alex, I am not familiar enough with the original movie to say whether a dvd cut is different. Wouldn't it be almost like an ethical issue to change a movie and not mention it on dvd? I feel as if there may not be a written rule about it, but wouldn't it be in everyone's interests if it was a directors cut...to mention it? I just don't know though.

Have you all seen Badlands and Days of heaven? Days of Heaven was the first Malick film I ever saw and it changed my whole view of films...it just haunted me...the cinematography as much as the characters and setting. I just made a note I must watch everything he makes...and then he doesn't make another movie for 20 years!

opps never mind. of course you mean The New World.

Cissy wrote: "This is one of my all time fav movies. And Christian Bale is simply superb. I love the way nature is portrayed there... after seeing this movie, the world is filled with wondrous beauty and magic. "

Christian Bale is in Thin Red Line? i don't remember him at all - but then i may not have known who he was at the time.

This is one of my all time fav movies. And Christian Bale is simply superb. I love the way nature is portrayed there... after seeing this movie, the world is filled with wondrous beauty and magic.

thin red line outshines private ryan or any other film by spielberg. days of heaven is a real treat, and one i want to go back and revisit. criterion recently released it in a new restored print. that's going on the list of things to watch this weekend, thanks for mentioning it, sooz.

Maryse wrote: "Definitely one of the most visually stunning films I've seen, and, I agree with Tom, terribly underrated. I remember thinking that I could almost smell the earth and feel the wind while watching it..."

Malick's films are all visually stunning - his films are a feast for the eyes. well, those i have seen anyway.

in particular 'Days of Heaven' set in rural America around the turn of the century i think. like you mention Maryse, you can sense the movement of the wind - this time through fields of wheat, and the shots of the sky go on forever. the landscape is so big.

the other that comes to mind is 'The Thin Red Line' it came out about the same time as 'Saving Private Ryan' and i always felt it didn't get the attention it deserved due to the overwhelming popularity of Saving P.R. to be fair, the story of The Thin Red Line can't beat the heroics of Saving P.R., but it is such a beautiful film.

Definitely one of the most visually stunning films I've seen, and, I agree with Tom, terribly underrated. I remember thinking that I could almost smell the earth and feel the wind while watching it. The images were so natural and beautiful that I couldn't help wishing that I had lived back then when everything seemed so simple and serene.

I like THE NEW WORLD a great deal, having been blown away by it when it was released. I haven't been able to sit through it from start to finish on video, alas. It was the first film where I thought that Colin Farrell might be actually able to act, and it is a reminder of what Christian Bale can do when he's not stuck in sci-fi superhero nonsense.

The things that really impressed me is the incredible beauty of the surroundings, and the palpable timewarp that Malick is able to create. I always feel transported to that first settlement, it really feels like they've just stepped off that boat and found some place that has been largely untouched by humanity. A remarkable and terribly underrated film.

Understood bro, though I can only imagine the anger that you feel. In the other post on the film BILLY JACK, this is the anger that Laughlin, who I believe is part Cherokee, uses as a template for the late 60's counter-culture and the clash with a corrupt power structure. I just realized that I spent the weekend watching two films about the genocide of the Native Americans. I'm glad my job doesn't recognize Columbus Day as a holiday...because I sure don't!

yes, i've read black elk speaks. there was a long period where i read as much as i could on the subject. but the anger that comes up can cripple you. so i have to read things like that in small doses these days.

Phillip, have you read BLACK ELK? What a great book!

thanks alex, it's time to check this out again. i haven't seen it since it hit the theaters. i like malick's approach, he's always concerned with our relationship to our natural environment, so glad he was at the helm for this one.

i have been reading a few books on my ancestors lately, one on custer and crazy horse and one on the shoshone tribe. i get to the point where i have to put it all down, all these countless stories of the premeditated genocide of natives of this wonderful land. and for what purpose? so it could all be rendered a capitalist cesspool...

if any of you don't know what i'm talking about, just start with the book bury my heart at
wounded knee. that's one of the finer narratives on the subject. but there are many,
many more.

I mention this film again because I watched the Blu-ray Extended Cut last night and was sure that it differs from the DVD Extended Cut that was released last year. The run time is slightly longer but the flashbacks, overlapping narrative, musical cues, and editing seems very different. Even my Cinamentor who has seen the film 5 times (this was my 3rd) asked me before I voiced my opinion. Maybe we're wrong because seeing it on the big screen with a nice sound-system really brought forth visual & aural details that we never noticed before...but I think it's been re-edited. Just wondering if others have had the same experience!

I'll re-post my review from last year, which is based upon the DVD Extended Cut but equally applies to any version. The more I see this film (and I need to be in the right frame of mind!) the more I appreciate it. Needles to say...but I'll say it anyway...Highly Recommended.


THE NEW WORLD (Terrance Malick, 2006, USA) A young woman explores her mysterious emotional and physical geography, discovering this brave new world of blossoming sexuality. Malick’s film is not a historical narrative, an objective documentary that presents facts: this is a beautiful visual poem that embraces nature, both within the human psyche and throughout the living earth that we are connected to, whose elements have become our living tissue, and whose voice we have silenced in those dark recesses of pitch black nights, drawing down the moon and dimming the sun’s warm embrace. The natives live in harmony with nature, a society without the stain of wanton excess and material lust; this is a stark contrast to the alien invaders whose floating islands sow the seeds of decay and destruction, who turn the lush and vibrant landscape into a quagmire of greed and hatred: meet the New World…soon to be the same as the Old World. Captain Smith is a prisoner of both worlds but he eludes this bondage through love, he strips away his old skin but the wounds run deep into his heart, touched by passion but never fully healed. The young woman is nameless until tamed and captured, baptized with her new Christian name Rebecca; isolated from her previous existence she retreats into a world of solitude and silence, her one true love believed drowned at sea. Terrance Malick’s grand diorama is a masterpiece of cinematography, his landscape the secret depths of human nature, the objective world of the senses a metaphor as we struggle, despair, laugh, starve, love, and forgive. He shows the many faces of our animal species Homo Sapiens as he softly caresses a gentle breeze through grass, or Sol’s prismatic flare through the trees, and the breaking waves of change upon the rocky shores. (A)