Lover’s Haze
By Karolina Kiwak, with comments by Elena Zubenko, Adam Kaufman, and Jaclyn Ulman
[1] Malick portrays the love between John Smith and Pocahontas in a sensual, not sexual way throughout The New World, but their relationship comes to a climax in the scenes following Smith’s rescue. Malick uses nature, light, and touch to create the dream-like image of the historically idolized romance in the “Edenic†scene (32:30) in particular. Malick uses the concept of a dream-like existence to underline the effects of love on reality.
[2] The relationship between Pocahontas and Smith takes on the attributes of the typical love story, in which two star-crossed lovers are from opposing cultures/socio-economic backgrounds/families/etc. but insist on being together despite it all. They are passionately in love, a parent figure forbids the affair, they ignore the threat, and suffer the consequences of disownment. Pocahontas and Smith’s story fits right along these guidelines. The end result of their love is not quite as neatly planned. It does end tragically, but because Smith chooses to end it, not because of interfering circumstances. Thus Malick shapes and molds this tale that has been fed to the masses, the cross-cultural love story told to us to help aid in the idea that some natives welcomed us, in a slightly more historically accurate way than Disney.
[3] In reality, Pocahontas and Smith never fostered a romantic relationship. Smith was nearing thirty, and Pocahontas was closer to ten. She most likely did not have any contact with Smith on a romantic basis nor was Smith probably interested in her in a sexual way. In fact, if anything, Pocahontas was noted by the settlers as the favorite daughter of the chief and was often seen as a peace symbol. In the Generall Historie Smith himself describes how Pocahontas would be sent to the settlers with food and hide in times of desperation, and how she would help to negotiate the release of captives. How accurate this depiction of Pocahontas actually is can be debated, but in all of Smith’s descriptions of her, he never once alludes to a romantic relationship. By the time Pocahontas was kidnapped, Smith was long gone.
[4] However, Malick takes advantage of the “timeless†love story in order to relay the story of the settlement of Jamestown and the first contact between the English and the Natives. The relationship between Pocahontas and Smith is woven throughout the movie, and even comes to haunt Pocahontas almost up until her death. However, in this dream-like section of the film, their romance develops and climaxes. Malick shows the audience the relationship in a sort of haze. Both characters experience the love as if they were in a dream, and the way Malick depicts it, so does the audience. All throughout this particular section, while Smith is intermingling with the natives, he has this perplexed look on his face. It is this look as if he cannot comprehend that what is happening to him is anything but a dream. One instance in particular is in 33:08, when he is walking among the natives, watching them play and dance, with a look of serene bewilderment on his face. This underlines the concept that Smith’s experience is surreal, dreamlike, even though it is reality. He cannot grasp this concept. In this way, Malick capitalizes on the fact that their relationship is such a mythic concept, that it can be construed as something so idealistic and intangible, as a dream.
[5] Everything about the “Edenic†scene is hazy and serene. Smith goes from drudging through a murky river and almost getting killed to this joyful utopia. As Smith moves among the natives, the music grows louder, permeating the scene with a trance-inducing rhythm. The natural sounds are muted out. The people move in a slower, more lethargic way. Smith watches as a woman dances, not to the music the audience hears, but to some muted native rhythm. Her movements are considerably more languid than what is natural, subdued just like the sound. The sun beams down, its rays weaving through the leaves and branches of the trees, casting a soft glow onto the people and their surroundings. It is as if the events being witnessed are being viewed through a fog. It gives the viewer a feeling of seeing this image in a distant, pleasant memory, as in a dream.
[6] When the scene goes black after Smith is almost executed, he wakes up to a slower, calmer reality. He sees Pocahontas and enters this dream-like state. He begins assimilating with the natives, playing their games, and learning their culture. Malick creates this euphoric existence, where the people are playful and fun. Where there is plenty of food and a lack of evil intentions. Smith himself comments, “Real, what I thought a dream.†Smith had envisioned a kind of society just like the one into which he gets adopted. One in which “words denoting lying, deceit, greed, envy, slander, and forgiveness have never been heard.†The scene portrayed is heavenly; it does in fact feel as if Smith has entered into the Garden of Eden, playing up the dream motif even more. (comment by Adam Kaufman)
[7] This dream-like concept is underlined when Smith reflects upon Pocahontas. He almost deifies her, saying “the sun himself, though he saw her often, was surprised whenever she came out into his presence.†She is this unreal figure, who is worshipped by the sun and stands out among a hundred children to be upheld as the favorite of the chief. Malick uses Smith to portray this idea, because Pocahontas is like a dream to Smith, and later their love is.
[8] The interactions between Smith and Pocahontas are pretty muted. They speak slowly and in a whisper. They nuzzle a lot and lay around, once again creating this relaxed image. They can be together, in their own reality. Reveling in their bliss in the lazy world in which they are engulfed.
[9] What’s more is that for the time being this haze they are in is their reality. The idea Malick portrays is that of a lover’s haze. Smith falls in love with the culture, and he falls in love with Pocahontas. So he is living in this bliss, where he is untouched by any other problems. Smith goes on to say, “Love . . . There is only this. All else is unreal.†The idea that their reality is portrayed in this mystical light demonstrates the mysticism of their romance. The love between Smith and Pocahontas has been exaggerated, and retold, and held up on this pedestal. Their love is iconic and in this sense matches the dream motif of the love Smith and Pocahontas are experiencing in the movie. (comment by Jaclyn Ulman)
[10] Even when they part, they are still in a haze. Pocahontas gestures goodbye to Smith in sign language, and they part ways. It is very sentimental and very tranquil. There is nothing dramatic or tearful about their separation. A love that seemed so passionate shouldn’t end so passively, yet it does. Pocahontas wanders off slowly and weaves her way through corn stalks, a lazy smile across her face, as she thinks about her love. She does not yet comprehend the finality of their separation but is still engulfed in this dream-like state. She does not yet realize the cold truth that the love between Smith and she has come to an end. (comment by Elena Zubenko)
[11] Smith returns to the Jamestown settlement and is rudely awoken from his dreamy existence. He comes from this utopia, where the golden beams of sunlight shine down between the tree limbs and plump babies giggle, to this dreary, dark entombment with starving children. The world Smith enters into in “The Return†(42:01) is drastically different and demonstrates a stark contrast between a world of love and pleasure, and this world, this reality where he is being accused of treason. Malick uses Smith’s voice to demonstrate the difference between the two realities, and the difference between the world of Pocahontas’s love and a world without it. Upon his return to Jamestown Smith says, “It was a dream. Now I am awake.â€
Comments
Passionate love? With all due respect, you must be kidding. This hazy romance speaks nothing of the real passion, of the love to die for. Look at the two main characters. There is no point in arguing that they both live in a dream. But I would insist that it is not just John Smith who sees Pocahontas as a fairytale creature. It is obvious that she perceives him the same way. The only difference is that he has stepped from his reality into this “Edenic†dream that she was an organic part of while for this girl he became a piece of a fairytale brought into her real world. Their interactions look like the attempts to carefully touch the surface of the water where you see reflections of something familiar yet so different. The brink is so hard to cross without breaking. All of their movements are slow and might be taken as tender, but I sense no tenderness only caution.
No wonder that this love ended with Smith’s return to his settlement. It was a part of the dream so it suffered the same fate. That heavenly feeling that they might seem to possess towards each other had nothing to do with the real world. At least from Smith’s side as he had given it up so easily. I think if there was any real passion, it would show at his face (well, he was a coward, so we still might not have been able to see any actions) and in his words when he was talking to himself. As a matter of fact, I don’t recall him ever mentioning Pocahontas in his thoughts after he had left her village.
In Pocahontas’s case I would not be so sure. The fact that she showed no strong emotions might be based on her cultural background, yet her actions speak louder. What she had was, if not the passion, at least some strong feeling that made her determined to leave her reality and come to his. I think that if Smith had demonstrated her real passion, we would have had a different story. He was a guest and a grown-up man -- that’s why I think he had been allowed to take the lead in their relation. And it was namely his dreamy vision that shaped their so called “love.â€
Surprisingly, Karolina, I almost completely agree with your entire "dream theme" thesis, despite my cynicism reading of your post because of what I initially interpreted as repetitiveness. Upon reviewing key scenes from the film, I realized not only does the director convey a blending of reality and imagination, but the characters themselves reiterated their deluded state constantly (the voice overs were often hard to hear, thus resulting in my own haze as to what was going on). However, this past paragraph reminded me of a thought I had during the first half of the movie when I was still unsure of the movie's direction/point. John Smith points out on more than one occasion that he has a vision (or perhaps a dream? MLK maybe?) of a new world, one without the evil intentions of the old society, where a man earns what he needs and does not want.
None need grow poor. Here there is good ground for all, and no cost but one's labor. We shall build a true commonwealth, hard work and self reliance our virtues. We shall have no landlords to wrack us with high rents or extort the fruit of our labor.
As the movie proceeded, I kept coming back to Smith's wish, one that coalesces upon his integration into native society and subsequently disintegrates once he returns to his own camp. The more I thought about it, the more I felt like the director was jabbing a stick into an old and pus-festering wound what we now call the United States of America -- a land belonging to the free and brave, where all men are created equal, where a government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from this earth. And I don't think anyone wants to argue it's perfect, but Smith's monologue seemed to chide our inability to achieve the ultimate utopia we once dreamt up, to highlight the irony of failure and man's (or maybe just Europe's) inherent evil, a stain left once native civilization fell and a new one rose, an abomination of its former self, devoid of any of man's capacity to behave independently of greed and deceit or inherent need of social caste.
But enough run-on sentences, of course we live in a great country! At the film's conclusion I realized Malick probably did not intend to evoke that sort of response from his audience, the aforementioned ideas surfacing because of a juxtaposition of my own, preexisting attitude onto the movie. Equitably, I found solace towards the end, as Pocahontas, lying on her deathbed, laments the processes by which one lives his life does not define its merit, but rather the joy one extracts from that life, regardless of lost lands or families or gods. Dying, she whispers, "Mother, now I know where you live." I'm still not quite sure how to explain it in words, but it evokes an emotion that somehow, despite the shittiness that exists in the world manages to creep into our minds and run rampant through the media or our government -- everything's going to be alright.
I tend to be quick to judge how well a film is made, and one of my biggest pet peeves is a poorly established relationship. Unfortunately, this is seen often in films today -- the intended relationship is only conveyed on a superficial level, just enough to get by. I found the relationship between John Smith and Pocahontas in this film to be very well established. I find this to be incredibly ironic, mostly because the two actors couldn't be intimate with one another because of their age difference. However, the successful depiction of this relationship is largely because of how Malick chose to film it. The "lover's haze" that Kiwak discusses, that consists of multiple shots of Smith and Pocahontas enjoying nature and one another and heartfelt voiceovers, created a "dream motif." This motif causes the viewer to see these clips as fond memories, and the passion between the two of them is palpable, albeit not tangible.
