The New World (New Line; Movie •••½, Picture/Sound ••••, Extras •••), Terrence Malick's film about the fateful collision of English settlers with Native Americans in 1607, is short on dialogue and long on trippy shots of sunlight leaking through virgin forests.
One was a gregarious actor who became a cultural icon. The other was an erudite, poetic soul hiding in a sadistic, foul-tempered drunk ... and arguably America's greatest director.