Watching the New World was a bit like watching a ballet. Everything is said in gestures and movement. The words spoken in the dialogue and voice-overs evoke the feelings that these things embody. It’s not a movie for everyone. You have to be patient while watching. You have to watch and listen.
In one of the final scenes, Pocahontas meets John Smith after they have been apart for years. During her separation from John Smith, she has wed John Rolfe and has had a child with him. She meets John Smith to resolve her feelings for him. There are no tears or confessions of undying love. They simply walk together. She asks him if he found his Indies. He replies, “I think I sailed past them.� The camera cuts to a shot of her as she smiles gently, bows her head to him, turns around and walks away. Had this been any other movie, there would have been tears and lofty words exchanged. But not so here. The words are not important.
Two other points of interest: one about the music, and another about Pocahontas’ name. If you listen to the score and the sound design, you will notice that the movie begins and ends with sounds from the forest. Instead of fading the movie in and out with a score, those sounds are used. When there is a score to be heard, it seems unfinished. The music builds and then repeats. It will swell for a moment and then you expect it to finish, but instead it just ends. It has no resolution. An interesting choice that serves to remind us – as that final shot of the trees stretching into the sky does – that perhaps there is always that potential for more. I also found it interesting that the name Pocahontas is never used in the movie. She is never called by that name or referred to by it. She is only called Rebecca after she is baptized. I thought it was an interesting choice. Is that name so burdened by meaning that it can’t be use? Or is it because of some other reason?
Finally, since I can’t write a movie blog without making a comment that is completely beside the point…who would you chose: Colin Farrell or Christian Bale? I obviously didn’t know the story very well and was surprised when she married John Rolfe, who Christian Bale played. I was surprised again when she was faced in the end with the choice of John Rolfe or John Smith. Would that be a hard decision in real life? Imagine, you’re married to Christian Bale. The two of you have a son. Colin Farrell, your former love, comes to pay you a visit. Do you run off with him or stick with your husband? How is it even fair that you have to choose between the two?
Do you want to know my answer? I would choose the man I was married to and who I had a family with and not the one who ran off on me when things became too complicated. And I wouldn’t make this decision just because it is the right thing to do. I would do it because love is a far more complicated thing than just desire. It is trust and companionship. Ugh, I’m starting to make myself sick! What I would really be thinking is that I’d really like to sleep with Colin Farrell but I’ll take Christian Bale instead.
Anyway, ladies – or men – write in your decision on the Colin Farrell or Christian Bale choice and why you would make it.
at January 28, 2006 11:31 PM