Historical Sources In The Film 'The New Word'

Contemporary filmmakers often bring films to life by using historical sources that depicts real world events. However, sometimes the primary sources can be misused and thus may illustrate real world events differently or in a misleading manner. This paper focuses on the film “The New Word” and how contemporary filmmakers use or misused historical sources such as John Smith’s “A True Relation” to portray the British expedition in Virginia in 1607. The paper will discuss how in the film; however, such as events did not occur in the same chronological order accordingly to the historical sources. Most importantly, the film wrongly portrays historical events that took place in the Virginia Colony and John Smith’s romantic relationship with Pocahontas.
In the historical source A True Relation, John Smith narratives his time as an explorer, soldier and leader of the Virginia Colony. Smith wrote his journey in chronological order from December of 1606 to the Spring of 1608. First, Smith describes the moment when British
For instance, in the film “Pocahontas” created by Disney, Pocahontas was portrayed as a beautiful dark-skinned woman with long and black hair, and a thin waist. John Smith was portrayed as a white man with blonde hair and blue eyes. However, in the film “The New World”, Pocahontas was portrayed as a light-skinned woman with light and brown hair which resembles more European appearance than Native American. Moreover, John Smith is portrayed as a white man with light brown hair and green eyes. Therefore, this demonstrate that filmmakers often misused primary sources and decide to portray historical characters in a way that they believe is more accurate; however, disregarding the fact that there are not sufficient evidences that confirms the physical appearance of such as