Object #14 - Hedges - The New World (2005)

Dir. Terrence Malick 

There's no filmmaker better than Malick who conveys humanity's link with nature. I realise that's a bold statement, but I'll stand by it. His films almost always have a scene of someone walking through a field, appreciating the beauty of nature. In fact, some of his most recent work such as To The Wonder have been criticized heavily for placing this focus on nature above all else, such as the plot and the characters. In The New World, Malick strikes the chord with such finesse that it's both subtle and obvious. 

In the end of the film, Pocahontas (Q'orianka Kilchner), the Native-American princess is in her English estate. I actually haven't seen the 1995 Disney Pocahontas and I've no idea if they even cover her later married life. I realise that most readers will only be familiar with her character through that film. To put it simply, she reluctantly (although the emotion is a little more complex than that) married John Rolfe (Christian Bale) in historical fact, and does so in this film. She plays with her young son, playing hide-and-seek in the large garden of the estate, scene here. As she does so we see the elaborately trimmed and topiaried hedges of the estate. As I've said, Malick loves to focus on nature. And what we have here is nature controlled, and tamed to retain a certain aesthetically pleasing shape. Throughout the film, in early-settlement America, and the home of Pocahontas' tribe, there are lush fields like this:

In England, nature is tamed, like so:

What the environment (and remember this a Malick film, so the environment is oftentimes more important than the focus of the scene) does is show us the differences between 'civilization' and the un-civilized America. The New World that the title alludes to makes you think of America, the final continent discovered by man, and all the possibility and history that would unfold over there over the next few hundred years. The first half of the film explicitly deals with this land. The final half or so contrasts it. Instead of seeing the Englishmen carve (literally) their world ideals into the new world, erecting forts by cutting down trees, engaging in skirmishes with the Native-Americans using their guns, bringing English hierarchy and religion, and so on, we see Pocahontas and some fellow tribesmen react to the already established world of 15th century England. However, what we realise is that this is the new world to them. Their culture has a history just like ours, they may not have made guns, have organised religion, or more elaborate engineering, but they are a culture. In fact, a culture that has remained harmonious with nature.

The hedges show us all of this by contrast. Take out all the other things I've mentioned that the film elaborates on to explore the theme, and look at the difference in the growing field, and the trimmed hedge. That's the core of the film, the rest of the film is the meat. Pocahontas is our guide through this, and do you know what? She realises shortly before her death, "Mother, now I know where you live". She knows that nature, Mother, is everywhere. As she plays with her son we are reminded of how she frolicked with her tribe in the long-grass. The fact that the hedges are just that, hedges, doesn't matter to her, as she realises that her playing, her joy at nature, continues to flourish in this new world. Nature is universal, and more than that, humanity is universal. Universal implies the universe, but what else was the Earth at this point? America was undiscovered until now, what we see, and what she sees is this universality of humanity across the globe, through nature. It doesn't matter if you are civilised, a hedge, or uncilvilised, an overgrown field, all that matters is that you are human. 

In the final shots Malick hammers all this home to a crescendo. Pocahontas frolics in streams and trees in her civilized dress, the music builds, we cut to shots of nature, a calm lake, rivers flowing, and the large ship, sails large as it sails back to the new world. We know that Pocahonatas will die on this trip of pneumonia, but it doesn't matter, she was happy, she accepted her husband and loved him, and loved their child in the English estate. The shot of the ship and the sea is repeated, but without the ship, a horizon, the sea. The ship has passed, as has Pocahontas, and we are left with the sea, and the final cut: trees swaying in the wind, and birds singing. Nature, at the end of all things.