THE NEW WORLD - no hit and all myth

Part of the mystique of Stanley Kubrick was his meager output (7 films directed in @30 years). Writer / director Terrence Malick is even less prolific — 4 directed movies in 30 years --- and thus, for some idolizing critics, is also a genius.

BADLANDS (1973), was a small movie about runaway teens on a crime spree. Based on the Starkweather / Fugate killings in the barren Midwest, it introduced Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek to audiences. In 1978, he wrote and directed DAYS OF HEAVEN with a bigger budget, starring Richard Gere. It flopped with audiences who thought its pace too slow and the pictures of bleak prairie landscapes boring — not unlike the reaction to Kubrick’s artwork, BARRY LYNDON. Malick’s 3rd movie was THE THIN RED LINE (1998), also not box office.

Critics love both Kubrick and Malick for their unique “poetic vision,” the apparent profundity of their insights as revealed by lyrical images and near silent lingering scenes which critics feel lend gravity to their work.

Some art-oriented critics have dubbed THE NEW WORLD a masterpiece. I can’t help wondering whether a scientific experiment, something like a blind wine tasting, would have produced less gushing from Malick lovers.

If somehow critics had been lured into theaters without foreknowledge of “auteur-ship,” would “lyrical” now be “ponderous and dull?” Would “poetic” be “pretentious?” Would “thoughtful” be “self-indulgent?”

The movie tells a legend that is as short as a fairy tale.

Capt. John Smith, an English settler of Jamestown colony, in 1607, is captured by “Naturals” and is about to be executed when Pocahontas, Indian princess, falls in love with him and begs her father to spare his life. Smith learns the Indian ways, falls in love with her. She warns Smith of her father’s plan to attack, saves the Englishmen, stays with them. Smith goes to England, leaving her there to mourn. She meets John Rolfe, marries, bears a son, goes to England, where she is a celebrity. Rolfe arranges a meeting with Smith, and she chooses to stay with Rolfe. Returning to America, she dies.

That’s the legend, and as I will show, like most legends, it is a half-truth, and also like most legends, is far less revealing than the whole truth.

John Ford’s famous quote from THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE was something like, “When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” There is no denying the power of legends, and no denying the reality that perception is more influential than factual adherence in politics, entertainment, and popular culture as well as art.

But oh, it is dangerous sometimes. My continuing prime example is BIRTH OF A NATION, the first proof of the power of moving pictures to “change history” to our detriment. The book and movie, THE DA VINCI CODE, is the most recent one. (A British poll claimed that a majority of people reading the book believed that Jesus had a child and that “Opus Dei” was an evil conspiracy.)

The Pocahontas legend is probably not as poisonous, but to some it is an affront. When Disney’s musical animated movie was released, the net was awash with Native American critics who decried the distortion.

English historians doubt that a love affair between Smith and the Indian maiden even existed. Smith was a prolific diarist, yet made no notation of the event in his contemporaneous reports. He only told the tale many years later. None of his contemporaries every wrote about it.

Her birth date is said to be @1595, which would make her 12 years old when the love affair is said to have occurred.

In Virginia historical accounts, the legend is repeated, crediting Pocahontas as an intermediary between the alien cultures who tried by urging and example to be an ambassador of peace.

She has also become a symbol to Feminists, who want to spin the tale a little more, emphasizing her independence, intellect, powerful personality and steadfastness.

Native Americans bridle at the “Euro-Centric” mythology that distorts their perception of the true history, which as expected, points out propagandistic distortions partly motivated by her status as the first Native American who the English successfully converted to Christianity.

A writer for the “Powhaten Nation” gave his version of “The Pocahontas Myth http://www.powhatan.org/pocc.html:

"Pocahontas" was a nickname, meaning "the naughty one" or "spoiled child". Her real name was Matoaka. The legend is that she saved a heroic John Smith from being clubbed to death by her father in 1607 - she would have been about 10 or 11 at the time. The truth is that Smith's fellow colonists described him as an abrasive, ambitious, self-promoting mercenary soldier.

Of all of Powhatan's children, only "Pocahontas" is known, primarily because she became the hero of Euro-Americans as the "good Indian", one who saved the life of a white man. Not only is the "good Indian/bad Indian theme" inevitably given new life ... , but the history, as recorded by the English themselves, is badly falsified in the name of "entertainment".

The truth of the matter is that the first time John Smith told the story about this rescue was 17 years after it happened, and it was but one of three reported by the pretentious Smith that he was saved from death by a prominent woman.

Yet in an account Smith wrote after his winter stay with Powhatan's people, he never mentioned such an incident. In fact, the starving adventurer reported he had been kept comfortable and treated in a friendly fashion as an honored guest of Powhatan and Powhatan's brothers. Most scholars think the "Pocahontas incident" would have been highly unlikely, especially since it was part of a longer account used as justification to wage war on Powhatan's Nation.

Euro-Americans must ask themselves why it has been so important to elevate Smith's fibbing to status as a national myth worthy of being recycled again ...

The true Pocahontas story has a sad ending. In 1612, at the age of 17, Pocahontas was treacherously taken prisoner by the English while she was on a social visit, and was held hostage at Jamestown for over a year.

During her captivity, a 28-year-old widower named John Rolfe took a "special interest" in the attractive young prisoner. As a condition of her release, she agreed to marry Rolfe, who the world can thank for commercializing tobacco. Thus, in April 1614, Matoaka, also known as "Pocahontas", daughter of Chief Powhatan, became "Rebecca Rolfe". Shortly after, they had a son, whom they named Thomas Rolfe. The descendants of Pocahontas and John Rolfe were known as the "Red Rolfes."

Two years later on the spring of 1616, Rolfe took her to England where the Virginia Company of London used her in their propaganda campaign to support the colony. She was wined and dined and taken to theaters. It was recorded that on one occasion when she encountered John Smith (who was also in London at the time), she was so furious with him that she turned her back to him, hid her face, and went off by herself for several hours. Later, in a second encounter, she called him a liar and showed him the door.

Rolfe, his young wife, and their son set off for Virginia in March of 1617, but "Rebecca" had to be taken off the ship at Gravesend. She died there on March 21, 1617, at the age of 21. She was buried at Gravesend, but the grave was destroyed in a reconstruction of the church. It was only after her death and her fame in London society that Smith found it convenient to invent the yarn that she had rescued him.

In Malick’s movie, the girl is played by Q’Orianka Kilcher, who was 14 when filming began. This probably accounts for the absence of sex scenes.

Every encounter between the girl and Smith (Colin Farrell, 28) is tender, consisting mostly of petting (not as in “heavy petting” but as in “petting a deer”). What passion there is between them is expressed by her shy looks. Farrell’s every emotion (he has one or two) shows in his eyebrows, which are his competition to Bette Davis’ eyes. Nicolas Cage must be jealous.

Malick lingers on every look, every faltering touch, every shy smile. There is no editing involved. Without these scenes, and those of birds flying, suns setting, and rivers flowing, the 2 1/2 hour movie would be a short.

Malick’s casting of Ms. Kilcher is the stuff of authentic Hollywood myth. Her father is said to be Quechuan, Peruvian Incan ancestry, while her mother is Swiss, raised in Alaska. Her grandfather was an Alaskan mountain climbing legend named “Pirate” Genet, who died on Mount Everest. The young actress / singer was discovered on the exotic streets of Santa Monica, playing her guitar. (IMBD bio).