The film contains all this on two canvases... The obvious one is the American landscape which decorates the screen with the authenticity we've come to expect from Malick's masterworks.  The other canvas is the extraordinary landscape of Q'Orianka Kilcher's face, a face of natural beauty and peaceful emotion that will be forever burned in your memory.  Her Pocahontas/Rebecca is a mesmerizing debut performance that she may never be able to top.  It is one of the best of the year.

It would be fair to compare this film with Malick's 1998 masterpiece, "The Thin Red Line"... A film of such power and beauty that it has crept closer to my All Time Top 10 List upon each new viewing.  The styles and tones of both films compliment one another.  They are both meditations on life where we can hear characters narrate their thoughts as we float along with Malick's lens in and amongst the natural beauty of earth.  Neither film constitutes traditional, formulaic storytelling.

The first half of this film is deceptive.  It pretends to tells us the story of America's first few hours.  It seems to focus on the interaction of European settlers with the native people who already inhabit what will eventually become Virginia.  There is curiosity and tension.  There are truces and battles.  But eventually the supposed civilization being built in Jamestown starts to crumble with corruption and greed and power.

What makes this film so memorable is that it seamlessly blends that story into the life of Pocahontas/Rebecca.  The second half of the film focuses almost entirely on her.  She takes the place of America as our lead character.  She becomes a metaphor for change.  Malick shifts the canvas, but not the subject.  It is a masterstroke of direction.

In the first half of the film, Pocahontas meets and falls in love with Captain Smith (Colin Farrell).  Their passion and curiosity for each other is genuine and heartfelt.  But rarely in this world does love reflect a fairytale.  Things go wrong...  Civilization intrudes on their innocent and pure love for one another.

Once separated from each other, the film shifts solely to Pocahontas.  We watch as she is forced to abandon her natural life, forced to conform to the new world.  It is at this point that the film takes on a regretful tone.

Even the arrival of John Rolfe (Christian Bale), as a kind man who falls in love with her, seems to carry an air of sadness with it.  He treats her well.  He takes good care of her.  He asks for her hand in marriage.  They start a family.  But the film never relents from that regret.

The final chapter of the film explores a resolution that most films dare not take on.  I won't explain what happens; only that it is a mature ending, the correct ending.  It is tinged with regret of what might have been if we hadn't made mistakes along the way.  And yet the film realizes that mistakes are part of the process of growing and learning.

Malick's films are wistful.  They are profound without effort.  It is the reason that he is considered a directorial legend after only having done four films in 35 years.  I've especially loved his last two efforts because they are those rare films that can make you a better person for having seen them.  Most films can only hope to entertain.  His films can help you understand and think and feel at depths you cannot reach alone.  They act as a perfect combination of notes in a melody that lift you to a higher plane... if only for a little while, before you have to return to the real world again.