It is absolute genius to show her bittersweet, sudden death and having Rolfe's calm voice-over establish her passing, only to then cut to a beautiful vignette of her running through the field in her English clothes, with a revived joy inside of her that she hasn't shown in such pure a form since she was a young girl dancing amid the tall grasses of her homeland. Malick contrasts the moments where she feels her imminent death upon her with the moments where she feels most alive, all set to Wagner's beautiful music that is always giving a sense of continuous upward motion. Masterpiece.
drw5500 The joy on her face is the joy of redemption. The water she douses herself with is like the asperges at a catholic church, cleansing, purifying, sanctifying.
+drw5500 Oh, well said, well said indeed! This scene never fails to bring tears to my eyes. A masterpiece, yes... the same can be said about your comment. Thank you for the time and attention you took to write it.
I've always felt that this was her soul, not her. Malick cuts from her playing with her son (I also feel that this is her spirit, already out of body) to Rolfe holding her hand as she lays dying to an empty bed to a Native American (death) who runs out of the confines of the home then back to her: finally free ("Mother, now I know where you live." This is nature, alive in all things, everywhere, all of the time, and never manifested more clearly than in one's own offspring). We cut to a grave with the cross, then the masts of the ship forming two crosses. Then to nature, then a port, and slowly but surely nature: trees, water, trees, water, always water. The emotions this brings up... My heart always swells. Unparalleled.
By far one of the best endings to a film I’ve ever watched. The sadness mixed in with the peace of the situation, mixes perfectly to create such a bitter sweet ending. Oh and God, that music… Just so beautiful. It’s like it’s speaking to us. That no matter the bitter sweetness of the situation, always remember the good times and strive for the future which holds accomplishment and a new day. A new world.
This film NEVER gets old for me. Poetry in motion. In my opinion, Malik is at his prime. James Horner's the Forbidden Corn is amazing as well. I've watched 100xs & will watch 100xs again :-)
I saw this in its subdued Austin debut. Terrence Malick's wife was quietly in attendance in the rear of the theater and at the end commented that Terry saw his films as little poems. This ending is the quintessential example of this.
Haunting and sublime, mystical and profound. From beginning to end, this gorgeously ethereal color movie is three dimensional paintings in constant motion, animated with hypnotic cinematic brilliance. Her eternal soul returns unto nature, released free to soar homeward through space time. Haunting majestic music equally effectively used during Nosferatu The Vampyre - 1979.
Absolute marvel of a film. Malick creates magic in each of his movies, especially this ending. All of his signatures are there, the tall trees, the flowing grass, the running water, the bird flying from left to right, which you also see in Days from Heaven and Tree of Life at least, the somersault as in Days of Heaven......this is so beautiful and emotional, no matter how many times one watches that ending
He’s good although very uneven. I’m my opinion, the greatest filmmaker since Kubrick is a three way between Spielberg, Linklater, and maybe Alexander Payne. Just my opinion though!
I am male and I have a tendency to like love stories best of all stories, perhaps a little unusual in my cohort. In my humble opinion this is the greatest depiction of love between a man and a woman ever, sacrificial, heartbreaking and redeeming.
From 1:49-2:01 as horrible as it is to watch because we know what her fate will be. I see a small silver linning. His anguish as he holds her hand and as she gently strokes his hair the image of true love! They had a short but beautiful life together. She left this world knowing how much love he had for her and he will raise their son with compassion and confidence.
I loved this movie so much I watched it twice back to back…I’m happy she got to live a life of joy…he son will never want for anything ..I’m crying just typing this …what a great movie
I just absolutely love this film. I saw it in the theatre and it is just so incredibly beautiful. This ending scene is just perfection. Lyrical, simple and profound. It is amazing and has stayed with me for so many years.
Malick"s BEST FILM. Perfect from beginning to end! An unforgettable experience. Hesitated to watch it a second time because nothing could compare to that first viewing and was not sure my heart could make it through.
There's really something magical here. The music in contrast to the imagery and choice of scenes is simply amazing. I feel as if I'm entering the gates of heaven watching them play in that garden as the scene progresses to them sailing to sea.
@@plumeria66 Not just her mother, but Mother Earth itself. Through the inevitability of her death, she's finally realized the answers to her many questions throughout her life.
The way this scene initially shows the death from the perspective of the child, suddenly having his mother disappearing mid game, and then breaks into Pochahontas’ exuberant return to nature, is just stunning. I also found it deeply moving.
Every time I watch this movie I cry, and cry. Even watching this video. I don't normally do so, but it's such a beautiful movie. Unfortunately not many people know about this true masterpiece. The music, the acting...it's just 10 out of 10! :-)
ive visited pocahontas memorial in gravesend and its so amazing seeing her life in a film and knowing she was real it never ceases to make me emotional
This form of stylish just leaves me both meditative and at a complete standstill. I felt this way with The Thin Red Line as well. Malick brings something so unique and different to the table that some enjoy and some don't. As unconventional as he is, I truly find him a deep, deep visionary. You either hate these movies or love them with no in between. I get goose bumps from this final scene.
Such a masterpiece of a movie. I also loved the ending credits roll as the camera moves east to west over a somewhat primitive engraving of the North American continent. The background sound of birds and insects is enchanting as well
the day I leave this crazy world and close my eyes for the last time, I hope I hear something so beautiful so powerful and like the valkyrie enter a new world
When I watch that final shot of the towering fir tree, and the music has faded, leaving only the sound of water rushing towards the sea, I'm reminded of the last few stanzas of "The Great Gatsby", as Gatsby's friend watches night fall slowly over Manhattan. As I reread them now, and think of all that has transpired in just four swift centuries, it's almost as if Fitzgerald was writing not only Gatsby's epitaph, but that of our entire miraculous species... _I spent my Saturday nights in New York because those gleaming, dazzling parties of his were with me so vividly that I could still hear the music and the laughter, faint and incessant, from his garden, and the cars going up and down his drive. One night I did hear a material car there, and saw its lights stop at his front steps. But I didn’t investigate. Probably it was some final guest who had been away at the ends of the earth and didn’t know that the party was over._ _On the last night, with my trunk packed and my car sold to the grocer, I went over and looked at that huge incoherent failure of a house once more. On the white steps an obscene word, scrawled by some boy with a piece of brick, stood out clearly in the moonlight, and I erased it, drawing my shoe raspingly along the stone. Then I wandered down to the beach and sprawled out on the sand._ _Most of the big shore places were closed now and there were hardly any lights except the shadowy, moving glow of a ferryboat across the Sound. And as the moon rose higher the inessential houses began to melt away until gradually I became aware of the old island here that flowered once for Dutch sailors’ eyes - a fresh, green breast of the new world. Its vanished trees, the trees that had made way for Gatsby’s house, had once pandered in whispers to the last and greatest of all human dreams; for a transitory enchanted moment man must have held his breath in the presence of this continent, compelled into an aesthetic contemplation he neither understood nor desired, face to face for the last time in history with something commensurate to his capacity for wonder._ _And as I sat there brooding on the old, unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it. He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night._ _Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter - to-morrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning_ -- _So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past._ (F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Great Gatsby")
drtr95 You're very welcome! It's been almost four years since I've posted this and I come back to it from time to time. I still think it's one of the most beautiful sequences in recent film history. I'm always moved by the cut and then the shot that shows her hugging her child just as Wagner's music begins to emerge. It's a breathtaking moment of maternal solace that speaks volumes about this extraordinary woman... the "mother" of our country as she's been called.
so few words and yet so much to be understood from these images. it's a magical and yet simple film. I don't know how you combine these two without being pretentious and grandiose. he's a great director. I got goosebumps on my arms just watching this scene. this is why I want to get into directing. I want to create magic like this.
When a movie scene like this conveys so much emotion , then you know the filmaker is a master of his craft. Another scene that i highly highly recommend is from Akira Kurosawa's dreams. The last part "the village of the watermills" after the wandering tourist witnesses the funeral proscecion. This last scene when he leaves the village and the camera lingers on the river while the hauntingly beautifull caucasian sketches is playing always gets me.
The first time 9 years ago I felt impacted why her? Life it's so unfear. She died also too far away of her family and buried on England, far away of america
A scene like this is what Malick is always trying to achieve. Personally I think this is his best movie after the long break...I know most don't agree but I thought this one blended nature, the self-reflection and a coherent story more than any of his recent films.
Remembering my mother ann and the times we played hide and seek in are garden long ago in them golden years of my childhood and has i see her touch the tree of life she is now to me a wild spirit and has free has a bird to dance endlessly were and ever her spirit desides to take her and has i look into a new dawn and into a new life i look back to were she lays with great sadness but with great joy for i no now were she lives.
i was fourteen when this movie came out and i went to see it with my dad. i remember the movie ending and us leaving the theater and driving home and both of us being silent. we were truly gobsmacked by how beautiful it was.
I thought I was weird for finding this ending so captivatingly powerful...the spiritual and mystic bridge between live and death is not a far distance. As a mother we all wish to be there to witness and attest to your child becoming an adult. But is not up to us. It is in the hands of destiny...we are just a vessel for the divine act of creation. And at the end of that blessed act Death sits waiting for comfort and relieve us. May I have given all the Love I could and served as Best I could. Remember me as kind and helpful. And have pity and mercy for my faults. Oh! Come Sweet Death Be Thee Gentle Yet Unyielding My Work Is Accomplished.
James Horner's music is just great for this film. Today is the ninth year of his death. RIP. Terrence Malick made the right choice of getting to write the score for this film.
when Cooper listens to the sounds of nature in the Saturn flyby scene (from the movie Interstellar). This scene from this movie is what it reminds me of.
Q'orianka Waira Qoiana Kilcher (born: February 11, 1990) is an American actress, singer, and activist. Her best known film roles are Pocahontas in Terrence Malick's 2005 film The New World, and Kaʻiulani in Princess Kaiulani (2009). In 2020, she starred in a recurring role on the Paramount television series Yellowstone.
The Pocahontas they choose was perfect, she had this beauty that I can’t describe. Mysterious, innocent, warmth, ahhh just everything. Such a beautiful and peaceful film.
Am I the only one who wished the movie had shown her getting sick, Rolfe trying to nurse her back to health and them have a deep, meaningful conversation-instead of rushing it with Rolfe’s voiceover ? I wanted to hear what she said straight from her own lips. That would have made her death scene ten times more emotional…Does that make me heartless that I want to make the audience cry?
i absolutely agree with you!! such beauty and profoundness, love how everything speaks for itself, all the camera angles, the shots and expressions, no need for any talk :)
