1. The New World (2005)
The New World, for me, is the best film that Terrence Malick has made (yet). Based not on history but on the folk legend of John Smiths romantic relationship with Pocahontas, The New World is a rapturous, visually stunning tale of clashing civilizations, impossible and doomed loves, and an inevitably changing world. Anchored around a stunning, almost angelic turn by Qorianka Kilcher as Pocahontas, The New World moves like poetry as it shows the slow death of the Native American way at the hands of the English explorers. Pocahontas herself serves a symbol of this transformation, initially skeptical of these changes, then welcoming, and eventually destroyed by them. The ending sequence of the film, in which she moves back to England with John Rolfe (Christian Bale), is simultaneously devastating and life affirming, as powerful as anything Malick as created before or after. The New World is an intoxicating film, a dream that washes over you, a meditation on love (love of land, tradition, and others) in a world that is constantly in flux. Like all of Malicks films, it understands the power of images over words, of whispers over screams, and the beauty that can be found in the natural world around all of us. For me, it is his masterpiece. The list isn't over yet... click "next" for my thoughts on To The Wonder.