As I understand it (i.e., as the newspaper ads proclaim), the initial 149-minute version of Terrence Malick’s The New World is going to “close” late tonight — Tuesday, January 3rd — and a new shorter version is going to re-open on Friday, 1.20.06. So today is the last chance for anyone to see the longer, more meditative version of this half-awesome, half-not-so-awesome film. For all we know the 149-minute version will never again see the light of day. You never know…will the eccentric Malick forbid New World Home Video from releasing it? It’s looking to me like more and more of a big do-or-die day…and just hours to go! The shorter New World will run about 132 minutes (a New Line spokesperson says it’s been cut by “about 16 or 17 minutes”). It will be press-screened a week or so before the 1.20 re-opening.