To Gregg and All,

    I thought Haskel Wexler directed "Days of Heaven."  If Terrence Malick
did direct that film then I know what "The New World" must be like.  Days of
Heaven is a visual love letter to the west Texas plains.  Its plot is light.
It is essentially a silent film with sound, and sumptuous to behold.

Harold S. Forsythe
----- Original Message -----
From: "Gregg Kimball" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 9:51 AM
Subject: Re: NYT praises "The New World," new version


A friend of mine loaned me Malick's "Days of Heaven" before I went to
see "New World."  As Henry mentioned, it helped me understand his
approach to filmmaking and made the "New World" less jarring.  I think
that "Days of Heaven" is more successful and comes in at a bit over 90
minutes.  "New World" could have used even more editing, in my view.

Anyone expecting the typical narrative devices of most American film
(and especially historical epics) will have difficulty with his movies.
However, I find his approach to narrative to be quite interesting. He
uses lush landscapes, subtle movement and gestures, and, as Eric
suggests, a poetic narrative voice to tell a very impressionistic story.
Those who desire lots of dialog that spells out everything for them and
who like the quick visual cuts that have become a staple of action
movies will certainly hate this movie.

Gregg Kimball


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Henry Wiencek
Sent: Tuesday, January 24, 2006 9:14 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: NYT praises "The New World," new version

I think a lot of people expected "The New World" to be an adventure
story.
 I had that idea too, but I had also seen Malick's earlier films so I
had learned to "expect the unexpected."  I would agree with the New
Yorker critic, who wrote: "Whole passages of non-event stream by, and
you half want to scream, and yet-damn it all-by the end of "The New
World" the spell of the images, plus the enigma of Kilcher's
[Pocahontas] expression . . . somehow breaks you down."  It IS slow, but
I didn't really mind (a Bach sonata is slow too), and when the story
reached England I felt the whole thing ascend into something wonderful
and extremely powerful and moving.

Henry Wiencek

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