I saw the film Saturday and have had a hard time getting it out of my
head.  It grows richer the more I think about it.  Just one item: when
Pocahontas and John Rolfe sail for England they are accompanied on the
boat by an Indian who displays a short stick and declares with great
confidence that when he gets to the other side of the sea he will count
the English, and will make a notch on his stick for each one he sees.  He
also says he is going to see God.  So we laugh at this foolish savage who
thinks he can count the innumerable English on a tiny stick, but the joke
is on us.  Only an artist of genius could conceive this metaphor of the
folly of humans trying to comprehend what is on the other side.  The
mystery of divinity and the question of divinity's presence in the world
are recurring themes in Malick's films.

HW

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