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The upward gaze of Pocahontas (Q'Orianka Kilcher) may represent a longing for something more

If Malick's films evoke such desire for heaven and redeemed existence, even if they go no further in answering that search, they at least make our weary souls all the more desperate for fulfillment. And if the state of the world and the conflict of man is truly the best evidence, as Lewis and Chesterton (among others) believed, of the divine Other, then perhaps Christians should pay attention to the Heidegger/Malick approach to art. What if we strive, as Malick does, to represent the world as it is, in all its turbulence and unanswered anxiety? Rather than finding creative—though unnatural—ways to package the answers, shouldn't we first focus on honestly portraying the questions?

The voiceovers of The NewWorld, as in all Malick films, are heavy on questioning. As Smith sets out to chart new territory, he questions the drive in his soul to find the utopia he longs for: "Who are you I so faintly hear; who urged me ever on?" Pocahontas questions her decision to become Christianized and abandon her roots. She also questions Smith's love. Nothing is certain for these characters, and life—in all its evanescent glory—is in constant question. But within that spiritual restlessness there is a deep and beautiful otherness, and Malick mines it well. The simultaneous bliss and emptiness, glory and lacking, transcendence and dissonance that fill the screens of Malick's pictures confront us with our imperiled existence in ways that can only really be satiated by a look to the sky.

Eventually, we are told in Scripture, there will be a new heaven and new earth. For human existence, where the loss and longing of Eden are ever present, such a hope is an ultimate comfort. But until we get to that place—the distant shore and unending land that Martin Heidegger, Terrence Malick, and all of us seek—we must dwell in this impermanent world, between earth and sky … somewhere between fallen Eden and the New World.

© Brett McCracken 2005, subject to licensing agreement with Christianity Today International. All rights reserved. Click for reprint information.

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