Pocahontas Movie Essay
History of the Americas Rafia Islam Pocahontas Movie Critique The movie "Pocahontas" was released in 1995 by Disney for the sake of entertainment for little kids and their families. However, like many other Disney movies, people from all different age groups turned to this movie for entertainment. Pocahontas is a majorly inaccurate film that in some cases may be racist or insulting to Native Americas. Obviously, Disney didn’t mean to offend anyone because that would be bad business, but the stereotypes are made pretty clear in this depiction of a real person's story. To put it simply, the movie was a great success in terms of music and quality of animation, but the historical inaccuracy is quite difficult to overlook. Disney
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One major example is Pocahontas herself. In the movie, she is a broad shouldered, independent, and beautiful woman. The real Pocahontas was only a prepubescent teen. John Smith himself confirmed this in his letter to Queen Anne of Great Britain. "So it is…I received from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesy, especially from his [Powhatan's] son Nantaquaus, the most manliest, comliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in a Salvage, and his sister Pocahontas, the Kings most dear and well-beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen years of age…” (Smith). The romance between Smith and Pocahontas was also unreal. In the movie, as Smith is about to be clubbed to death, Pocahontas throws herself in front of her father saying, “ I love him, Father” (Pocahontas. 1995. DVD). However, there is no evidence of such love in reality. Smith was about 27 years of age and Pocahontas was only 12 or 13. It just would not have worked out because Smith was too old to have fallen in love with a child. In the movie, just five minutes after they meet, Pocahontas just magically starts understanding English and soon, she is talking fluently. The biggest mistake made in this movie was Pocahontas' actual life story. She was kidnapped by the whites, taken to England and married to John Rolfe. Her own father abandoned her due to his greed for just a few guns. She also converted to Christianity and changed her name to Rebecca Rolfe. She later died of disease around age 21. Clearly, Disney neglected to display the sorrow and misery that happened in Pocahontas’
One major example is Pocahontas herself. In the movie, she is a broad shouldered, independent, and beautiful woman. The real Pocahontas was only a prepubescent teen. John Smith himself confirmed this in his letter to Queen Anne of Great Britain. "So it is…I received from this great Salvage exceeding great courtesy, especially from his [Powhatan's] son Nantaquaus, the most manliest, comliest, boldest spirit I ever saw in a Salvage, and his sister Pocahontas, the Kings most dear and well-beloved daughter, being but a child of twelve or thirteen years of age…” (Smith). The romance between Smith and Pocahontas was also unreal. In the movie, as Smith is about to be clubbed to death, Pocahontas throws herself in front of her father saying, “ I love him, Father” (Pocahontas. 1995. DVD). However, there is no evidence of such love in reality. Smith was about 27 years of age and Pocahontas was only 12 or 13. It just would not have worked out because Smith was too old to have fallen in love with a child. In the movie, just five minutes after they meet, Pocahontas just magically starts understanding English and soon, she is talking fluently. The biggest mistake made in this movie was Pocahontas' actual life story. She was kidnapped by the whites, taken to England and married to John Rolfe. Her own father abandoned her due to his greed for just a few guns. She also converted to Christianity and changed her name to Rebecca Rolfe. She later died of disease around age 21. Clearly, Disney neglected to display the sorrow and misery that happened in Pocahontas’