Home Video Picks & Passes 07.24.16

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) — PASS

The New World (2005) — PICK

The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) — PICK

The best bets among new Blu-ray releases are a couple of frontier classics: one a long-overlooked Henry Fonda western, the other a much more recent film about the story of Pocahontas, John Smith and the founding of Jamestown.

The long-overlooked film is The Ox-Bow Incident, a grim but powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of vigilante justice and mob rule. Fonda plays a ragged cowboy who, like his later character in 12 Angry Men, is uncomfortable with the angry rush to judgment of an illegal posse searching for cattle rustlers who have allegedly murdered a popular rancher — though Fonda’s character is far less noble and outspoken than the eloquent architect of 12 Angry Men.

Leigh Whipper plays an unassuming black preacher condescendingly brought along for a veneer of religiosity; he provides a voice of conscience that is tragically ignored. The climax, a letter from a dead man, is devastating.

The newer film, from acclaimed Christian filmmaker Terrence Malick, is The New World, newly available from the Criterion Collection.

A mesmerizingly beautiful film about the first meeting of Europeans and Native Americans, and in particular the legendary story of Pocahontas and John Smith (Colin Farrell), with an unexpected coda in the marriage of Pocahontas (14-year-old Q’Orianka Kilcher) — or Rebecca, her baptismal name — and John Rolfe (Christian Bale), a man who is as unassuming and kind as Farrell’s Smith is bold and exciting.

As with his later Tree of Life, Malick’s approach relies more on imagery, atmosphere and voice-over than plot, motivation or character development to create a sense of a spiritual journey. It’s a powerful approach, if one not all viewers will appreciate.

Then there’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, the summer’s most anticipated blockbuster and a major disappointment (though not an unexpected one) in my book. Directed by Zack Snyder, the film perpetuates all the flaws of Snyder’s Man of Steel, while inventing new ones.

At the heart of Snyder’s chilly, unheroic, uninspiring vision of the DC universe is what I’ve called Snyder’s “Bro-jectivism” — that is, a frat-boy sensibility informed by the most callous interpretation of Ayn Rand’s “Objectivist” philosophy, glorifying the strong while holding the weak in contempt. Skip it.

 

Caveat Spectator: The New World: A scene of intense battle violence; some spiritual ambiguity. The Ox-Bow Incident: Brief frontier violence; vigilante justice; off-screen suicide. Both fine for teens and up.