I liked it, but I could see where anyone who didn't already have a
pretty good idea of what the story was, would have trouble figuring
it out. It wasn't very clear. BTW the grunting, etc. was supposedly
the Algonquin language, which at great trouble and expense they
recreated. It is now being studied and there is talk of re-using it,
even among the coastal tribes. I didn't see the natives as being
depicted so crudely. They were the ones turning up their noses at the
foul-smelling Englishmen. Their settlements were clean, prosperous,
full of happy children, compared to the squalor and perpetual
squabbling of Jamestown. But the director seemed to want to forget
that almost nobody knows about Jamestown, so logically, almost none
of the viewing audience knew the story his movie was trying to
depict. But at least the people who saw it learned that the coastal
tribes didn't live in tipis [how many times have I heard that from
visitors...], and that John Smith and Pocahontas didn't get married
and live happily ever after, and that she was a child at their
meeting, not some gorgeous woodland babe.
But my point is, this guy is a famous director who makes outstanding
films. So why did he fall down so badly on this one? Like so many
other Jamestown related projects seem to keel over and die. It's kind
of strange.
A few years ago I took a friend from Ireland [in her 40s] to see the
fort and museums, etc., and she said she could remember when people
in Ireland still lived in houses pretty much like that. So much for
impressing a visitor...
Nancy
-------
I was never lost, but I was bewildered once for three days.
--Daniel Boone
On Jan 19, 2007, at 5:09 AM, Clara Callahan wrote:
> It sank because it was an awful movie. Downright boring. It
> depicted Indians as maybe one step above a salamander on the
> evolutionary ladder, grunting, gesticulating. I couldn't sit
> through the whole thing, and I saw it in my own living room. I was
> glad I hadn't spent good money on it at the theatre. It was
> extremely disappointing.
>
>
> Sunshine49 <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Maybe we need to get a Native American shaman or whoever to smudge
> Jamestowne. It's almost like a curse- the movie "The New World" a few
> years ago, so heralded, so advertised all over the country, articles
> in magazines and newspapers, the LA Times website had a video ad
> running for several months, a big-name director, this is finally
> going to be "it", the world will know of Jamestowne... and the movie
> almost sank without a trace. Very frustrating.
>
> Nancy
>
> -------
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