Movie Thoughts: The New World

I never saw this movie in theaters when it came out last year. I'm not sure why. I found the trailers interesting. I like early American history. Maybe I was somewhat skeptical that this might simply be another Disneyesque remake of history, though without the singing forest animals.






But then I read Will Gray's excellent and compelling review of this movie on his blog Explorations. So I added it to the top of my Netflix queque. It came in the mail two days ago, and I watched it this afternoon.

Will was right. It was beautiful. Much of the movie is quiet and thoughtful, and I loved the minimalization/understatement of key events (such as when the first indication of a baby's birth is a shot of his hand), which I think simply makes the emotion of the scene that more affective. I loved this movie. I would watch it again. And I highly recommend it.