Free Republic

For a century, Monument Avenue has showcased some of the Confederacy’s most revered figures. Soon, there will be a blank canvas. Over the past week, the Richmond Times-Dispatch asked demonstrators, residents, artists and community leaders what they'd like to see on the new Monument Avenue. There were suggestions of new statues, honoring a more inclusive set of heroes. Others wanted a space for performance or reflection, while some felt the empty pedestals should stay as a historical testimony of their own. One point of agreement was that it must be a communitywide conversation. Through restrictive covenants, real estate companies long...

When you're called a genius and avoid the press like Howard Hughes and direct only one movie every decade or so, it's an event when you crank out a new one. This time around, Terrence Malick, the media-shy maestro behind Badlands, Days of Heaven, and The Thin Red Line, trains his jeweler's eye on the love story between Native American Pocahontas (15-year-old newcomer Q'Orianka Kilcher) and English explorer John Smith (Colin Farrell) in 17th-century Jamestown, Va. Malick originally wrote a draft of the screenplay in the late '70s, but much like his own Hollywood ambitions at the time, the project...