The Show
To say that The New World: Extended Cut is hard to follow would be an understatement. From the editing to the voiceovers, this movie is nearly incomprehensible. The camera shifts back and forth with quick edits that confuse rather than entertain. There are constant voiceovers from different characters that interfere with the movie’s dialogue, making everything hard to understand.
When this movie hit theaters right before the Academy Awards, it clocked in at 150 minutes. The actual wide release was even shorter at 135 minutes. The extended cut DVD balloons the movie’s running time to a tiresome 172 minutes.
The New World tells the story of the early settlers, and specifically the story of the famous John Smith (Colin Farrell), and the Jamestown settlement. This is not your Disney version of colonization. This movie is real. Almost too real. That’s the biggest problem I have with The New World. It tries so hard to be realistic by having dialogue that consists of people constantly talking over other people. Sure that’s what it’s like in real life, but if I wanted those types of conversations I’d go talk to real people.
The settlers continually have problems with the natives. It’s interesting to see the contrast between the two groups. The English settlers come in, cut down all the trees, and build forts. Inside the forts are barren, devoid of anything but crude buildings, starving people, and mud.
John Smith falls in love with one of the natives. While we all know it’s supposed to be Pocahontas, her name is actually never mentioned. After John Smith leaves and heads back to England to bring back his own settlement party, another man takes his place. John Rolfe (Christian Bale) takes a fancy to Smith’s native girl. They marry even though she is still in love with Smith. She ends up living with Rolfe and the settlers and in turn the natives don’t attack.
Overall it’s an interesting story, but the film leaves us wanting to know more about the characters. Within the 172 minutes there’s still not much character development going on except with Pocahontas. Smith changes while he is living with the natives, but his story is left when it is just starting to get good, and we move on to Rolfe, who is less interesting and all together pretty boring.
The Quality
The video is presented in 2.35:1 widescreen, enhanced for 16x9 televisions. The colors haven’t changed that much from the previous release, although this release seems to have a bluer tinge to it. The greens do seem to be brighter in this version, but other than that there’s not much that has changed.
Article comments
1 - A
you're an idiot!