Daelyn Lizzy’s review published on Letterboxd:
I never got the continued interest in the Pocahontas story, but after seeing this I see why it will probably persist as an immortal myth. During the flight of Apollo 11 Walter Cronkite commented that the journey to the Moon made the great voyages from the age of exploitation seem decidedly earthbound. But here, Malick conveys that for both those early explorerss and the people they met the experience of being totally cut off from the familiar must have felt like standing on the Moon. Unlike the crew of Apollo 11 who continually broadcast their experience to a watching world, those people who made the journey to the New World could only communicate their experiences or learn about home through the “man-made islands” that with luck might come twice a year. Watching the film at this time when many of us are spending our lives in the Erewhon of cyberspace, I was continually struck by the significance of place—a forest village of family, a fort filled with disease and death, a massive and artificial (in the literal sense) city. The questions that The New World poses to us are no less than: Where will my life be lived?, With whom and how will I love?, and finally, Where will I die?