Terrence Malick
The New World

LA RECENSIONE

My best friend, Manuel, has been trying for seven years to graduate from the University of Film, and for about ten to understand the purpose of his shitty life, so since he hit rock bottom, we meet more often.

We're just grass, Manuel. That's all there is; everything else is unreal.

"As Fantozzi would say: 'The new world is a colossal piece of crap'. I might save five minutes (total runtime 2h40m) to make a documentary to send to Piero Angela... dialogues so insignificant they rival those of the 'Teletubbies' (...), the theater lost audience every 30 minutes, laments, curses, and insults could be heard until the final laughs sprang from moments of pure desperation and exhaustion. After ten or so false alarms, the much-awaited end arrived... a roar of applause." (No Panic, age not reported, Rome)

Malick's weakest and most recent film in order of time, yet it's a jewel like the previous ones, unfortunately only in the (embarrassing) choice of the mediocre Colin Farrell as the main actor. The rest is the usual Malick, supreme art applied to cinema.

Consciousness is a misfortune, Manuel. A fly. A barking dog. I will find joy in everything I see, even though I have failed.

"I've always adored slow movies... but this is really a crust, you can't understand a damn thing... what kind of story is this? what's the message? He's an idiot... she kills her entire people for the love of the idiot... and to top it off, she marries another idiot who can't be understood where he comes from... and as if that wasn't enough, she marries him even though her heart belongs to the other idiot... but this is AGONY!!!" (Cliff, 32 years, Turin).

After the war saga, Malick celebrates that of love: the fifteen-year-old Q'Oriana Kilchen is a Pocahontas of pure, perfect, innocent beauty. All the king's children were beautiful; he had a dozen wives, hundreds of children, but she, the youngest, excelled so much that the sun itself - through which he gazed at her - was surprised every time she appeared before him.

"What crap! Can you call such a crude thing a movie? There are no naked women, naked men, sex, shootouts, chases, explosions, not even aliens, they never shoot. What a disgust! What did they spend the film's money on? I wouldn't recommend it even to my worst enemy: the few words spoken are in Arabic (Arabic?, ed.), terrible movie" (Stefano, 23 years, Sesto F.)

Who are you that reads me? What are your dreams made of? How many lands behind you? How many oceans? Have you lived or not? Look. Look how cold it is in the world.

"The sun... the air... the water... the wind... and again... the sun... the air... are you kind??? Astonishment and embarrassment in noticing that someone hadn't fallen asleep." (Roberto and Tiziana, 29 years, Rome).

Mother, where do you live? In the sky? In the clouds? In the sea? Show me your face. You are all I have, or I have nothing.

"If I had wanted to see landscapes, I would have taken a trip to Virginia or rented a National Geographic DVD. And then we complain if successful movies are called Christmas in Miami or Holidays on the Nile. Bye everyone, until next time." (Maurizio, 34 years, Milan).

Pocahontas: Have you found your savages, John? You will find them.

Captain John: I have crossed hundreds on my journey.

(All comments reported were selected from some forums and can be found on the web.)