Culture Contact in Film
Looking at Disney’s Pocahontas differently
I have been revisiting quite a few old Disney films that I enjoyed as a kid recently, which has led me to question and dive deeper into the motivations of the storytellers of these movies. Honestly, revisiting a movie like Pocahontas, you just have to laugh every now and again at the inaccuracies and stereotypes that would be torn to pieces nowadays.
Specifically, many of the themes that Lutz and Collins examine when looking at how non-Westerners are photographed in National Geographic between 1950 and 1986, such as exoticism, idealization, naturalization, sexualization, and simplification, are present in this film (Lutz and Collins).
Ignoring possible implications
The Romeo and Juliet romance between Pocahontas and John Smith is not only untrue, it also ignores the consequences of settler colonialism. While comfortable exploring themes of connection to nature and otherness in the song Colors of the Wind, the film is unwilling to criticize modern implications of culture contact and colonialism.
That song in particular begins to question the conflict that stemmed from cultural differences, yet plays into the stereotypes of Native Americans as people close to nature. In suggesting the naturalness of Native Americans to the audience, it enables us to, as Lutz and Collins might highlight, trace the sameness of man while “stripping away culture and leaving the universal, individual person (97).”
A problem in film: good vs. evil
Additionally, the film shies away from condemning all of the Europeans as they are shown in a positive light at the beginning of the film with their families and at the end of the film as they attack the “true” antagonist. Although they engaged in violence with the Native Americans, they were given the chance of redemption as they, alongside the audience, were able to overlook the differences between Westerners and non-Westerners when true love between Pocahontas and John Smith was showcased.
Although the power of true love is a common theme in Disney movies, the use of it in this situation allows the American audience to feel comfortable as they are not faced with the exploitation, tragedy, and complicated history between Native Americans and Europeans, and experience positive emotions as love overcomes all.
Who are “we”?
“We might say that Americans see themselves as no longer in possession of a culture but as holding on to history through their scientific advancements and their power to influence the evolutionary advance of other peoples and democracy and market economies (Lutz and Collins, 109).”
This national imaginary is formed through all kinds of media, and even, as previously discussed, through children’s movies.
Us vs. Them
Therefore, the storytellers are in the unique position of forming understandings of marked and unmarked peoples as they navigate a time period that is essentially pre-Nation (as Jamestown was the first permanent English settlement in the Americas and the United States had not yet been formed).
“Spectacle offers an imagistic surface of the world as a strategy of containment against any depth of involvement with that world (Arac, 63).”
Due to the “melting-pot” nature of the US, I think that it is easy to separate oneself from the actions of the settlers portrayed in the film as most American citizen’s ancestors did not come during the 1600s. Therefore, ideas about American exceptionalism and ideologies, such as those present in The Alamo, can go unquestioned as the audience is not implicated. The idealization of Native Americans and the lack of consequences in Pocahontas allows the majority American audience to appreciate cultural differences and reaffirm the view that they are humane and cultured.
At what cost?
This film under-delivers in representing different populations and culture contact. The motivations of the storytellers, specifically the Disneyfication in Pocahontas, influences the way the story is told within the historical context.
Part of me wants to say, “hey, what’s the harm? It’s just a kids movie and we will explain to them what really happened later, they don’t need to know now. There’s all kinds of things we don’t tell kids until they are older”
The other part of me is a little angry about being “lied to” for so long. It’s not like there was a Pocahontas part two that explained the indoctrination of Native Americans, the Trail of Tears, or the other horrible things in history we don’t like to talk about.
The responsibility of storytellers
Although it is not possible to represent history or culture with 100 percent accuracy, these films purposefully tell their stories in a way that is not grounded in reality. Moreover, media, specifically commercial films, have consequences as they influence worldviews and the national imaginary.
Even if some portion of the audience has an understanding of the wider historical and cultural context that these films are based in, there are still those that will digest the content unquestioningly, gaining the unconscious biases and ideologies that the storytellers present.
