Blog # 10 - Review of Disney Movie "Pocahontas"

This is a review of the Disney movie “Pocahontas”, that I watched over the Christmas break.  The story is about a young American Indian woman, Pocahontas, who meets and falls in love with an Englishman, Captain John Smith. Both Pocahontas and Captain John Smith were real people in history, but the story that is told in the movie is not the real story of what happened with the real people.

The movie begins with some soldiers from England getting on a ship to come to the New World (America). The soldiers on the ship were led by Governor Radcliffe and were looking to find gold in the New World. Captain John Smith was on the ship and was very popular with the men. Early in the movie, Captain John Smith saved Thomas, who had fallen out of the ship in a storm. When they got to the New World, they arrived in what is now the state of Virginia and called the place where the ship landed “Jamestown”.  Everyone got out of the ship, started cutting down trees to make a fort and started digging for gold.

There were some Indians nearby. Pocahontas’ father was the chief and Pocahontas was supposed to marry the best warrior whose name was Kocoum. Pocahontas did not want to marry him. She was away from her village one day and saw Captain John Smith at the water. The two of them met and fell in love. At first, they kept things secret. One day when Pocahontas and Captain Smith were together, Kocoum came to look for Pocahontas and Thomas came to look for Captain Smith. Kocoum was fighting Captain Smith, and Thomas shot him. Captain Smith told Thomas to leave, and the Indians took Captain Smith away and planned to kill him the next day. The soldiers came and a war was about to begin. Pocahontas told her father that she loved Captain Smith and would not let him be killed. Pocahontas’ father let Captain Smith go, but Governor Radcliffe tried to shoot Pocahontas’ father. Captain Smith took the bullet instead. He was hurt, but he not die. There was no war. The love between Pocahontas and Captain Smith stopped the war.

Captain Smith had to be taken back to England to go to the hospital, and Pocahontas stayed in America. The Indians brought food to the soldiers for their trip back to England.

This is a very good movie, but understood it better because we studied what happened with the Pilgrims and the Indians in my World Culture class. Both the Indians and the Englishmen thought that the other people were bad because they were different. I think that this has happened a lot in history.

Main Characters

Pocahontas: Daughter of Indian Chief

Captain John Smith: English soldier

Chief Powhatan: Pocahontas’ father

Kocoum: The best warrior of the Indian village, wanted to marry Pocahontas

Grandmother Willow: Talking Tree

Nakoma: Pocahontas’ best friend

Thomas: Captain John Smith saved him when he fell in the water. He shot Kocoum