Pocahontas - Romanticizing History at Its Finest

Pocahontas (1995) is an animated Disney movie that intertwines the colliding worlds of the English and Native Americans at the founding of Jamestown in 1607. The movie starts off at a port in England where men, notably John Smith and Governor Ratcliffe, and are ready to depart on a voyage sponsored by the Virginia Company (how lovely it was listening to the men sing of gold, glory, and God!). During a sea storm, the dashing John Smith heroically saves a crewmate named Thomas by plunging openly into the sea with only a rope tethering back to the boat—pretty brave and incredible if you ask me. Meanwhile, a beautiful, curious Native American woman named Pocahontas is completely at peace with the natural world, along with the rest of her tribe and her animal friends. She’s has doubts in her life as she is conflicted by her father insisting that she marry the tribe’s greatest warrior, Kocoum. Seeking council, she visits her grandmother by connecting with Grandmother Willow’s spirit in a grand willow tree. By rejecting to be told how to live her life, Pocahontas chooses to follow what the spirits and her dream of the spinning arrow guide her to. At this point, the English finally arrive at their destination. The storyline switches from perspective between the English and the Powhatan until, finally, the poster children of both sides, Pocahontas and John Smith, begin their budding romance. It’s a learning experience between cultures for the two lovers as they disregard the typical behaviors that set their people into violence with each other.

Back to the Jamestown colony, it is clear how malicious Governor Ratcliffe is by his constant dreams of gold, and his selfish motives are only worsened by the fact his reputation is hanging by the threads back at home. Convinced he is going to find lots of gold, Ratcliffe orders the men to immediately dig up the land; they clear a lot of trees, but do not get their hands on any gold. Tensions increase between the natives and the English when warriors come to investigate the perplexing strangers intruding on their land and get shot. As the English colonists become a growing threat to the Powhatans, Chief Powhatan orders to call for the other warriors of their tribe in order to defeat them. Both leaders, Powhatan and Ratcliffe, intend of dealing with their problems through violence, which sets a nice contrast to the understanding relationship John Smith and Pocahontas develop. Frustrated with the lack of gold, Ratcliffe convinces the colonists that they must attack these savages in order to uncover the stocks of gold they’re hiding. Reality check, there is no gold, just corn. Distressed by the growing desire for war, Pocahontas and Smith try to stop their respective sides from fighting, but it’s no use.

Smith sneaks away from camp to meet with Pocahontas in the middle of the night, only to have Thomas and Kocoum follow both of them, resulting in conflict and Kocoum’s death. The natives capture Smith to be killed at sunrise and keep him hostage at the village. The next day, Pocahontas, unsure of what to do, realizes that she must save him any way that she can and rushes over to where he is. In the knick of time, she places her head over John’s just as her father was about to bash his head in with a club. Moved by Pocahontas’ strong act of love, it is enough to snap everyone out of the mood for killing...except Ratcliffe. He takes a gun and aims it at Powatan, but Adams pushes him out of the way and takes the shot himself. With the colonists mad at Ratcliffe, they get upset by the fact that he used them all along, so they tie him up and send him on the boat back home. Critically injured, John Smith must return to England in order to recover, so Pocahontas and John share a very brief, sweet moment as they part ways.

Even though I’ll always complain about how annoying I found Governor Ratcliffe, Thomas, and Nakoma, the movie did succeed in making me shed a few tear. I think that if a movie successfully makes me emotionally attached to the characters, then in my eyes, the writers have succeeded in playing my heartstrings. To some people I’d imagine the romanticization of the English and Native contact was to a point of it being comical, for someone like me, it’s nice to see a happy ending. In history, there are not a lot of happy endings, especially for the Native Americans, so even though the historical accuracy of this movie stinks, the messages to be accepting of others and to follow your heart are very uplifting. I thoroughly enjoyed the visuals of this movie considering how involved it was with nature, so seeing Pocahontas’ interacting with the wind and other elements of nature really stressed that healthy balance natives practiced in life. On the other hand, life in Jamestown was just covered in dirt, so it just makes you want to hate Governor Ratcliffe’s guts even more. Pocahontas has got to be one of my favorite Disney movies now that I watch it again with a more discerning eye. I really liked how the move developed this relationship between the English and the Natives through animals themselves in the constant chasing between Meeko and Percy. The best part about this animal friendship was how they were able to get over their differences and even assimilate to each other’s cultures in the scene where they wore the other’s garments. If animals are able to settle their conflicts, then humans as well should not find it that challenging to change either. I really was expecting more deaths in this movie since their was a lot of conflict, but as I said before, this film is a romanticized work that depicts colonial life in a less dangerous light, making it misleading to the audience.

I think that this film is painfully and heavily romanticized to a point that the story’s historical accuracy is ruined. Besides the obvious exaggerated bits such as Pocahontas having animal buddies to John Smith heroically jumping off a ship for dramatic effect, the relationship depicted in the movie simply didn't happen because there wasn't this “push and pull” relationship between John and Pocahontas. Poccahontas’ first encounter with John occurred when she stopped Metacomet from bashing in John’s head (which apparently he was not even going to go through with). Pocahontas was only a teenager when she met John, who was a crusty, British man, so the romantic relationship in the Disney movie can turn a bit sour when considering this age difference. Don't even get me started on the talking tree, obviously this magical tree was implemented to add to the whimsical nature of these Native Americans and their connection to the natural world