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Pocahontas: The Legend
Englishmen come to explore and settle the new world. There they find natives who are curious about their "firesticks" and strange customs.
Release : | 1995 |
Rating : | 4.2 |
Studio : | |
Crew : | Set Decoration, Director of Photography, |
Cast : | Sandrine Holt Miles O'Keeffe Tony Goldwyn Gordon Tootoosis Billy Merasty |
Genre : | Adventure Romance Family |
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Reviews
Lack of good storyline.
Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.
Blistering performances.
This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama
This is the legendary story of English settlers arriving and establishing the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Pocahontas is the daughter of Chief Powhatan. She befriends Captain John Smith and even saves him after he's captured by the tribe. It's a romance set with a backdrop of a clash of cultures. Smith often clash with the other leaders including the arrogant Sir Edwin Wingfield (Tony Goldwyn).First of all, I do praise the use of real native actors. I don't think Sandrine Holt is native but there are many others in the cast. It is questionable about the historical accuracy and the movie covers that by naming it "Pocahontas: The Legend". It tries not to portray the natives as savages. However, it doesn't really have the gritty realism. Lead actor Miles O'Keeffe doesn't have the charisma and it would have been much better to have Tony Goldwyn play the part. The Canadian production doesn't have much in terms of value. This is a limited film.
Maybe it is just the history major in me but this film is terrible. If you are going to write a love story and put it in the form of film then great, but don't destroy the sanctity of history. The whole manipulation of reality for a "fine historical romance" would be funny if people did not think that it was the true story.The fact of the matter is Pocahontas did not love John Smith and John Smith was too in love with himself to think otherwise. The whole notion of "their love" comes from his personal journal. Most historians now believe that the whole event of Pocahontas throwing herself on John Smith "to save him" was an ceremonial ritual, adopting the "white tribe" (Jamestown) into the whole Powatan Alliance. Of course, John Smith, being a clueless foreigner, would not know the difference. If anything, they were just friends.I mean seriously, he was even shot in the back by one of the Jamestown settlers because they were all sick of him (which is when he returned to England and never came back). The whole notion of John Smith being the savior of Jamestown and being in some fairy-tale relationship makes me sick, because not only does it destroy history, it takes away the credit of the people who actually worked to survive in the settlement.
This film was good for some of the parts that made an honest attempt at portraying the Powhatan princess HOWEVER most of it only tried to make a mockery of her by looking at the humorous side. There were some scenes in the film that saw Sandrine Holt (Pocahontas) do some things that probably never even occurred at all in actual history....... (sorry, I can't say what they are since that's considered to be spoiling)Well............ anyways............... overall it was a good film but it's not the type of film that you would want to go back and see for a 2nd time.
This movie is very pretty to look at, with beautiful sets and costumes and Sandrine Holt is absolutely gorgeous. The Scenery was fantastic - beautiful landscapes. Myles O'Keefe as John Smith has great bone structure but thickening around the middle... Anyway enough of esthetics. The music was lovely, however the movie is not what you'd call rock-solid, the script is fairly weak in parts as is the plot. But for entertainment value it's not bad at all. Just suspend your disbelief when you hit an obvious flaw in the logic and you'll be ok. Tony Goldwyn did a good job, as did most of the 'white-men', actually fairly much all the actors were pretty good. As in many movies, it was only the script that let them down a bit.