Sergio's Fall Movie Countdown--#6

UNIVERSAL REMOTE

In a continuing series, Sergio reveals the ten films he is most looking forward to this fall.

6. The New World
directed by Terrence Malick
opens 12/25

Now that Stanley Kubrick has passed on, Terrence Malick is the Most Reclusive Genius working in films today. He has only made three films in 32 years, never gives interviews and has rarely been seen in public by those outside his close circle of collaborators. While Badlands and Days of Heaven are his two masterpieces, The Thin Red Line is probably more familiar with modern audiences. His films contain some of the most haunting and beautiful images ever to grace the screen. His work is often transcedent.

Badlands (1973) is a the story of a killer and his teenage girlfriend (Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek) on the run from the law across the midwest. Days of Heaven (1978) is about two young lovers (Richard Gere and Brooke Adams) who plot to steal from a dying rancher (Sam Shephard). It was 20 years before he finished another film, 1998's The Thin Red Line. (While it is impossible to dismiss the beauty of the images, I'm not a fan of the epic Line; it never reaches the cohesion and brilliance of his earlier, shorter films.) All three films rely heavily on voice over. What is different about Malick is his narrators are not wise nor eloquent (like say Morgan Freeman in The Shawshank Redemption and Million Dollar Baby.) Badlands' Sissy Spacek spoke with the naivete of a teenage girl and Days of Heaven's Linda Manz sounds downright uneducated. But their lack of eloquence was more than surpassed by a sense of feeling. Their words were not spoken by someone with all the answers in front of them. Rather, they came from the point of view of someone in the middle of the mist, someone who was living these feelings right at that moment. I rarely use "poetic" to describe writing in movies, but it is unavoidable here.

The New World is Malick's take on the Pocahontas legend. Colin Farrell plays John Smith, 17th century founder of Jamestown. Newcomer Q'orianka Kilcher plays Pocahontas, who famously saves Smith from death at the hands of her father, then has a affair with him. For a movie so close to release, there is little or no indications about what the final product will look like. Malick is famously protective of his work and hasn't yet screen it for critics. But the trailer is simply gorgeous.

Terrence Malick is truly one of the most original voices working in film today and serious filmgoers shouldn't miss The New World. If you only know his work from The Thin Red Line, I highly recommend getting the DVDs of Badlands and Days of Heaven. You'll then understand what all the fuss is about.

TOMORROW: An Oscar-winning actor dons his director's cap and heads south of the border.