Pocahontas review

Believe it or not I never got around to watching Pocahontas as a kid, so about a week ago was my first time ever. I ended up liking the movie a good amount. It has an amalgamation of life lessons that I find very important on a day to day basis.

The first lesson I found was that we must always be accepting of other cultures. Many conflicts between travelers and natives rise from very avoidable misunderstandings or miscommunications. In this case, Governor Ratcliffe believes that the Native Americans were first trying to attack when they were in reality just scouting out their own land, causing someone to get shot. Then Ratcliffe believes that the natives are hiding all the gold so he wages war. Ratcliffe is not the only one guilty of this, however. Chief Powhatan believes that it is John Smith who killed Kocoum, when it was really Thomas just defending his friend John. These massive misunderstandings would have been so insignificant had the two leaders been levelheaded and had a serious talk in everyone’s best interest.

The next major lesson that I took away from this movie is a quote from Grandmother Willow, “Listen with your heart, you will understand.” This reminds me a lot of Spock versus Kirk in Star Trek. Spock is a Vulcan, which is a species known for their perfectly logical and rational thinking. Kirk, on the other hand is human and therefore has a tendency to take risks and think with his emotions. It turns out then even though logically Kirk’s decisions don’t make sense to Spock, they end up working out because he follows his gut instinct. For Pocahontas, it would obviously make sense to choose Kocoum who is of her own people and one of the mightiest most attractive warriors, but she doesn’t love him. She finds herself much happier with John Smith, which seems illogical since they are technically enemies and engaged in a war. The only way to be truly happy in life is to follow your heart, not purely logic.

Something my mother tried to engrain in me from a very young age was a lack of materialism. This is very common among many Native American tribes and Pocahontas displays it by singing the line, “You think you own whatever land you land on.” I believe that land is never owned, it is just borrowed. Since we as humans are very much ephemeral compared to the earth, we do not really ever own land. This goes for possessions as well. If the only things that can bring you happiness are bought and bring temporary pleasure, you will never be truly happy. Many of those things will outlive us, but the intangible things like love and kindness far exceed our lifetimes. Pocahontas makes the point that everything is alive including the earth and rocks and while I don’t necessarily believe that, it makes a strong point against materialism.

The last thing I’ll say is that Pocahontas shows how vital an open mind is in life. Change is always inevitable. It can’t be stopped. Rather than trying to avoid change, it is much easier to welcome it with open arms. Chief Powhatan tries to convince Pocahontas that she shouldn’t change, she should be steady like a river, but steady rivers are constantly changing (just like a steady life). We have to adjust our minds to obstacles, just like a river adjusts when presented with one.