Speaking as one who feels Terrence Malick’s latest was not just the best film of last year, but one of the greatest I have ever seen, I didn’t want him to cut so much as a frame from the version that opened in limited release over Christmas. Happily — if strangely — the new, leaner version, opening nationwide on Friday, is not merely a “shorter cut,” but a whole new draft of the film. Malick has re-created many scenes anew using alternate takes, restoring once-deleted bits of dialogue, moving events around into fresh and more propulsive juxtapositions, which overall emphasize the passionate saga of love between Pocahontas (Q’Orianka Kilcher) and the social-climbing adventurer John Smith (Colin Farrell), as well as her later, more reticent but enlightened courtship with the rock-steady widower John Rolfe... More >>>