HB
8-1
11/5/07
Historical Review of ‘Pocahontas’
There are many views of who we think Pocahontas is. We think of Pocahontas as the
young Indian girl who stops a war between the Indians and the English, but we also think of her
as the beautiful love struck teenager in the Disney movie. Though ‘Pocahontas’ made millions of
dollars, some of the information given is not very factual. From the movie, you get an idea that
Pocahontas is dumbfounded when the English came to Virginia and fell in love with Captain John
Smith, which is not the whole truth, Pocahontas was very wise in the arriving of the English, and
was a great help.
In December of 1606, the English landed in three ships searching for gold in Virginia.
One of the leaders of the voyage, Captain John Smith, was 27 and very smart as to the land. In the
movie, Smith is portrayed as a striking young man in his late teens who is clueless to who the
Indians are and how their customs work, which is not the truth. Smith knew a lot about the
natives, their customs and traditions, and how to speak their language. Also on the movie, the
three ships in real life are portrayed as one ship in the movie, which would not have held the
amount of men there were.
Though Smith found no gold, he found a way to end the feud between the English and the
Indians. Her name was Pocahontas, as the twelve or thirteen-year-old daughter of Chief
Powhatan, she had a big impact on what happened in the tribe. In the movie, Pocahontas looked
as if she was in her late teens, which was very inaccurate. She was only eleven or twelve. In
addition, the movie acted as if Pocahontas was an only child to chief Powhatan, which was not
true because Powhatan had many wives, which birthed many children. Therefore, in the movie it
looked like she had little influence on her father, which was also incorrect.
The movie makes the relationship between Smith and Pocahontas to be very romantic,
which was not the case at all! John Smith was at least fifteen years older than she was which
would have made the relationship very unlikely. The movie also seemed as if Pocahontas saved
Smith from being executed because she loved him, which was not spot on. You see, if the Indians
would have executed Smith, it would have meant war. So, if Smith (one of the English’s best
men), would have been killed, the English would have retaliated.
In conclusion, I would have to say that the movie Pocahontas is a very fiction movie.
Though some of the facts are true, I would not look to that movie for a research paper. A tip for
the writers at Disney Studio...make sure to research further before you make a movie based on
historical events. Although we get the overall picture of Pocahontas’ story, it is still good to know
the complete truth behind a great story like this one.