The New World: #NoNeedToBelieve

Our usual readers are probably wondering, wait, wtf? That’s not an alien movie!

I recently came across the Imaginary Worlds podcast, and specifically the First Contact episode, and it completely changed my view of aliens and our storytelling about them. Highly recommend you give that a listen first.

The overall gist is that the foundation of the modern day alien movie comes from the cowboy and indian stories that have been told for hundreds of years. The difference is that today we are all the native american and the “white european explorer” is the alien from another world. And guess what? It doesn’t end well for the natives.

I re-watched a bunch of westerns and cowboy/indian films (and totally changed my view on the film Cowboys and Aliens), but the film that most stuck out in my head was ‘The New World’. First off, the cinematography and directing is great, no surprise being Terrence Malick film. More than that though, the connection the two characters develop despite a lack of language or cultural assumptions was inspirational. One of my favorite alien movies I’ve seen in a long time and continued the challenge that the Imaginary Worlds podcasts put forth to me about what an Alien movie is and what they can mean.