The New World

Tonight I rented the movie The New World, starring Colin Farrell and Christian Bale. The most extraordinary thing about the movie was the beautiful cinimatography.

The film was shot on location at the Chickahominy River, a tributary of the James River not far from the site of the real events, and other nearby locations. Reconstructions of the Jamestown settlement and of the Powhatan village were created, based on archaeological evidence. The England scenes were filmed at Hampton Court Palace and Hatfield House, near London. - Wikipedia

What touched me about the film, aside from its beauty, was the quality of the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas. As Roger Ebert writes in his review ...

The movie implies, rather than says, that she (Pocahontas) is driven by curiosity about these strange visitors, and empathy with their plight as strangers, and with admiration for Smith's reckless and intrepid courage. If love later plays a role, it is not modern romantic love so much as a pure instinctive version ... when he (Smith) first sees Pocahontas, she teaches him new feelings by her dignity and strangeness. There is a scene where Pocahontas and Smith teach each other simple words in their own languages, words for sky, eyes, lips, and the scene could seem contrived but it doesn't, because they play it with such a tender feeling of discovery.

The movie had a quiet, lyrical simplicity and also a kind of sadness that was haunting. Though it was not a sucess at the box office, I thik it's well worth a watch.



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For those interested, below is some of the history behind the storyline of the movie ...

As Wikipedia writes .... John Smith (1580–1631) was an English soldier, sailor, and author. He is chiefly remembered for his role in establishing the first permanent English settlement in North America, and his brief association with the Native American princess Pocahontas. .... He left home at 16 to become a mercenary in the army of Henri IV of France, later fought for the Habsburgs, was captured by the Turks and, once freed, returned eventually to England to join the Virginia Company exeidition to the new world.

Captain Smith became one of the leaders of the colony of Jamestown, which suffered from lack of water, bad weather and attacks by Native Americans. He was captured by the Powhatan Confederacy, and would have been killed, but Pocahontas, the daughter of the chief, saved his life. Some time later, Smith was wounded and left Jamestown for England, later returning to continue exploring the American east coast, which he named New England.

Pocahontas (c. 1595 – March 21, 1617) was a Native American woman who married an Englishman, John Rolfe, and became a celebrity in London toward the end of her short life ... - Wikipedia.

She wasabout 12 years old in 1607 when she saved John Smith, and the exact nature of their relationship remains unknown. When Smith left for England, she was told he had instead died. In 1613, she was kidnapped by some English sailors and spent a year in Henricus, learning English and becoming a Christian, with the baptismal name of Rebecca. It was here that she met John Rolfe.

According to Wikipedia ... John Rolfe (c. 1585 – 1622) was one of the early English settlers of North America. He is credited with the first successful cultivation of tobacco as an export crop in the Colony of Virginia and is known as the husband of Pocahontas, daughter of the chief of the Powhatan Confederacy.

Rolfe wrote a letter to the govenor of Virginia, expressing his desire to marry Pocahontas, who he'd met in Henricus. Here's part of it, in which he writes that he was not motivated by lust, but ...

... the unbridled desire of carnal affection, but for the good of this plantation, for the honor of our country, for the Glory of God, for my own salvation, and for the converting to the true knowledge of God and Jesus Christ an unbelieving creature, namely Pocahontas, to whom my hearty and best thoughts are, and have been a long time so entangled, and enthralled in so intricate a labyrinth that I was even a-wearied to unwind myself thereout. - link

They married and had a son, eventually moving to England. There Pocahontas met the King, and also saw, once again, Captain Smith, who she had thought dead. When the Rolfe family decided to move back to Virginia, Pocahontas fell ill before the ship could put out to sea, dying.