MovieChat Forums > The New World (2006) Discussion > FOUR EDITORS...and its some of the badde...

FOUR EDITORS...and its some of the baddest editing ive seen in my life

posted 14 years ago by Film_Bug
98 replies | jump to latest

how the hell does that happen? This movie had 4 editors. this has got to be one of the worst films i've ever seen, and it just boggles my mind how such a riveting story(and quite easy to be told) of Pocahontas can be screwed up in almost every imaginable way. how?
Where the hell did Terrence Malick learn filmmaking? The 1 million jump cuts, incoherent story and mess of action and directing, is just jarringly bad. i don't know how people pass this as a movie?

Some of the photography was nice looking but my god- i would've thought that the story and actually keeping the viewer WANTING to watch the movie would be more important than the fvcking cinematography.
i mean i can list numerous things wrong with the film(something a "LEGENDARY" filmmaker(or so he is called-Terrence Malick):
-constant jump cuts(just amateurish) it almost became laughable at some points
-editing random shots here and there mid-point of story: there were numerous points where characters were standing talking to each other, and then we'd keep on cutting back to shots of indians or the lake or the sky at TOTALLY innapropriate times) it was like the director and editor felt like doing what the hell they wanted OTHER than keeping it consistent and coherent.
-the music by James Horner was godawful. and i am sad to be saying that about one of my favorite composers...but the entire score comprised of nothing but incredibly quiet strings or annoying repetitive themes, that just didn't go anywhere.

THE BIGGEST PROBLEM was the fact that I didn't give a damn about any of these characters. and its totally weird since I've seen this story told numerous times, but each time a new director retells the story, he knows how connect the characters to the audience. Terrence Malick gives us absolutely NO character development on any of the characters. and the romance between John Smith and Pocahontas was one of the most unmotivated, god-awfully executed things ever. you keep wondering why the hell they like each other so much. nothing indicates why they even like each other, or romantically involved. I couldn't even get to Christian Bale as Rolfe. god.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] harveythepooka 12 years ago

I think OP has a very very narrow view about what film is. I agree that Malick breaks a lot of the rules of conventional film making but I have to say he's entitled. If you know anything about art then you know when you are learning you learn technique when you are practicing you learn a personal voice. Do you think E. E. Cummings could have used grammar the way he did if he didn't know the rules to begin with? You have to know all the rules before you can break them because when you break them you have to have intent. A happy accident isn't art because there is no thought behind it, intent is what's important whether you love it or hate it.

If you don't understand and appreciate this film then that is truly your loss.

[–] bubba_blais 12 years ago

the editing was pure genius.

[–] DennisHunter 12 years ago

you are no longer allowed to watch grown-up movies. To the kids table with you!

[–] Groovyshmoo_VII 12 years ago

The New World pushed narrative cinematic editing to new boundaries.

I usually reference to it when trying to explain my craft. That and Miami Vice.

[–] Brian_McInnis 12 years ago

What Malick learned about film-making in earlier decades isn't as relevant here as the style he had developed by the time he made 'New World', which wasn't quite perfected until 'The Tree of Life'. Most of 'New World' isn't up to the standard of 'Tree of Life', but it does contain, among many other things, three of the best lyrical passages ever filmed, during each of the uses of Wagner's 'Vorspiel', the first of which you'll have to see in the extended cut, of course.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] Namtab102 12 years ago

To those of you who didn't like it: go back to your cop shows and fart-joke movies. Those shouldn't make your brain hurt as much.

[–] mylesdunhill 11 years ago

or better yet, why doesn't one of you re-edit it, and then we can decide which is version is better?

[–] t_constantijn 11 years ago

I stopped here:

Where the hell did Terrence Malick learn filmmaking? The 1 million jump cuts, incoherent story and mess of action and directing, is just jarringly bad. i don't know how people pass this as a movie?

Not everything has to be as simplistic as Batman or Spiderman ,there are better ways of making movies...
But you obviously don't agree... but what do you know right ;)