CINEMA: Stanley Peskin
IN Walt Disney’s 33rd animated feature film,=20 Pocahontas, a native American heroine, is cast in the=20 mould of the Little Mermaid, Beauty and Jasmin, all of=20 whom are free spirits. With her sculpted features and=20 long flowing black hair, she goes wherever the wind=20 takes her. And it leads her directly to British soldier=20 Captain John Smith, a corn-blonde Englishman with Paul=20 Newman blue eyes, who is infinitely preferable to=20 Kocoum, a Powhatan warrior who never smiles. Pocahontas=20 speaks everyday American while Smith is spoken with a=20 faint Australian accent by Mel Gibson, an actor who has=20 exploited Hollywood almost as successfully as the=20 Englishmen who appropriated America in 1607.
Any language difficulties that the lovers have are=20 resolved in no time at all by the universal power of=20 love. And approximately an hour later, when Pocahontas=20 elects to stay with her people while Smith returns to=20 England, the film chooses to affirm their never-dying=20 love and to ignore some of the more sinister=20 implications of colonial depredation it has raised.
The sea shanty sung at the beginning of the film makes=20 it clear that gold is the driving force behind the=20 expedition of The Susan Constant to the New World. And=20 when the wicked Governor Ratcliffe plunges his dagger=20 into a map, right through the heart of Virginia, the=20 image of violence and rape would delight any New=20
Although the Indians are regarded by the English as=20 savages, their conquerors do not so much bring the=20 torch of enlightenment as a desire for territory and=20 self-empowerment. The superimposition of clouds and the=20 sails of the ships bringing the English to the New=20 World can only mean disaster.
In contrast, the lovers are seen in a number of shots,=20 either singly or together on a cliff top, surveying the=20 vast expanse of unspoiled virgin territory. Their love=20 is naturalised: it belongs to the world of waterfall=20 and leaves, and it is endorsed by Grandmother Willow, a=20 prophet who lives in a tree and can be seen only by=20 those characters who possess imagination. But for those=20 who know that “the fresh green breast of the new world”=20 was soon to become a “valley of ashes”, the film must=20 seem hopelessly romantic and out of touch with what has=20 happened in America during the last 390 years.
I am not sure that Neil Young, who has written a song=20 about himself, Marlon Brando and Pocahontas swapping=20 tales while sitting around a campfire, would give his=20 approval to this film. But one should not forget that=20 this is a Walt Disney film, and that the animals are=20 the stars.
There is a most agreeable raccoon called Meeko, who,=20 together with his friend, an amusing hummingbird called=20 Flit, converts the governor’s nasty pug Percy into a=20 member of the noble Powhatan tribe.
In a bitter-sweet ending, Smith, who is returning to=20 England, is assured by Pocahontas that they will never=20 be parted as leaves brush over his face. All of this is=20 quite affecting, and if one is prepared to suspend=20 historical fact and listen to a number of unmemorable=20 songs, then Pocahontas is entertaining enough.