The Last Moments of Love
By Christine Rapp, with comment by Andrew Tye
[1] In the warning scene, viewers witness a total change in the interactions between Pocahontas and John Smith. Pocahontas begins to unravel, while Smith undergoes a period of self-realization. This scene is the climax of their feelings towards each other, and after this point their relationship can never be the same again; it is the beginning of the end.
[2] Pocahontas carries a new kind of fear and anxiety on her face in this scene. As observers, we do not know that she has overheard her father and other members of her tribe discussing modes of attack on the settlers of Jamestown. The natives are excited about something, but at first glance they may only be preparing for a hunting trip. When Pocahontas first arrives at the campfire, it’s easy to read the emotions on her face as one of two things: she has just been severely scolded by her father and is still reeling from his harsh words, or she has become frantic with love for Smith and her wild-eyed expression is an uncontainable love for him.
[3] Smith does not immediately seem to grasp the urgency of her message. In fact, he does not seem to fully understand her until the battle is actually taking place; it is as he looks around himself at the devastation caused by the feud that he finally shows fear at the thought of what Pocahontas has sacrificed for him and for Jamestown. When she first comes to the campfire, he believes that she has come to him because she cannot contain her feelings for him. He may understand that she fears for his life but is still under the delusion that Jamestown is not susceptible to native attacks. He believes that what she needs is to return to their relationship from when he was captured and living with her tribe and that her desire to be with him is what troubles her the most. While these thoughts may or may not have been running through her mind, Pocahontas knows that she must convey the importance of what she is saying. (see comment by Andrew Tye)
[4] Smith is slow to catch on and even mocks her naïve, “come away,†because he thinks she’s young and doesn’t understand an adult relationship. “Where would we live?†he asks her, “in the woods, in the treetop, a hole in the ground?†Smith, believing that he is the realist, cannot bring himself to fall under Pocahontas’s spell again. Even though she has already told him that her father and her people mean to attack, Smith remains calm and composed.
[5] Pocahontas now begins to realize that what she had with Smith is coming to a close. Her despair mixed with her worry for his life makes Pocahontas frantic. She rocks back and forth and wildly looks about her surroundings, giving the impression that her emotions are too big for her body. Pocahontas looks like she is about ready to explode and has no idea how to release any of her anxiety.
[6] When Smith sees how upset she is, he realizes the impact of what she has done, and he too becomes upset. The tears that pool in his eyes are filled with worry and a love that he knows he can no longer express. While he and the colonists are in danger of being attacked, Smith understands that Pocahontas, too, has taken a great risk in coming to warn the colonists. She has put herself in jeopardy of punishment by her people, more specifically, her father. For her treason, Pocahontas’s sentence will probably be death. Although he knows that the pair would never survive in the woods on their own, Smith knows that she can never return to her home after what she has done.
[7] Realizing that Smith does not intend to leave with her, and unable to contain her pain, Pocahontas runs off into the forest. We see her roam around until morning, when the Native Americans creep up to the fort to attack. She has no idea if Smith has heeded her warnings and is both afraid for his safety and devastated that he has not left with her.
[8] During the campfire scene, Smith has his own sort of emotional breakdown. When we first see him, he is cold towards Pocahontas and makes no attempt to rekindle their passion. Though it may seem at first glance that he is tired of that short life that he knew with her and wants to get back to his own world, Smith’s eyes betray his real longings. Although Smith appreciates the life that he has known in his version of civilization, he secretly yearns for the peaceful life of the Natives. He still loves Pocahontas, but he is trying to be realistic and admit that their relationship cannot exist in either world.
[9] This is a unique scene in that Smith is generally looking away from Pocahontas when they are speaking. He loves her, but he does not want to, and he tries to distance himself from her by refusing to look into her eyes. Smith obviously understands the intensity of the situation because not only does he look directly at Pocahontas when he is speaking, but he allows her to see his eyes fill with tears. The scene begins with Smith trying to deny to Pocahontas and to himself that he has feelings for the Indian princess but ends with him displaying more emotion than at any other point in the film.
[10] Malick directed the movie with the purpose of creating a beautiful love story with breath-taking scenery. He tells the story of two lovers who, because of their backgrounds, were fated to live apart. This scene where Pocahontas comes to warn Smith is the one time in the movie at which he almost seems ready to leave with her. He scoffs at her schemes at first, but after he realizes the true danger, and what she has risked for his safety, he tries to think of a way that they can live together. Of course, their backgrounds are too different, and as much as Smith would like to try to overcome these differences, he is simply not capable of it.
[11] Though the film may be grounded more in myth than in reality, Malick accomplishes a unique version of the conventional Romeo and Juliet story. Popular tradition holds that Pocahontas, Indian Princess, saves John Smith from being clubbed to death after his capture and then yet again when she warns the colonists of the impending attack. This movie shows a girl not only worried about the attack her people are planning on the colonists but also a fear for her lover. This scene best represents the well-known love story. It is at the campfire that Smith and Pocahontas realize that they cannot be together and that they will both fall victim to the feud occurring between their civilizations. Pocahontas is fated to be sold away from her family and sent abroad, while Smith is overrun by his own people.
[12] All realism aside, the warning scene is really the turning point in the relationship between Pocahontas and John Smith. All of their previous departures allow them to return to one another. At this point, even though they see each other again, their relationship will never be the same. Next time they meet, Pocahontas will have lost much of her naivety, and Smith will never be as vulnerable and open again as he is at this point in the film.
Comments
The first thing I thought of here was Columbus in 1492. In what is more or less the climactic battle of 1492, the viewer senses a pain in Columbus that the New World has spiraled out of control and has become a place he did not envision (at least as he is portrayed in the movie). I thought this drew a similar parallel to the "devastation" that Smith sees but, like Columbus, only after it is too late. The natives have prepared an attack on the settlers, and there is no turning back. I also think that Christine's analysis of Smith's relationship with Pocahontas--that he wants to "return to their relationship when he was captured" is really a metaphor for a bigger picture. The same way Smith and Pocahontas wish to rewind, so too do the settlers and the natives. The Natives, or "Naturals" as they are called, obviously wish they could get rid of the settlers and go back to the way things used to be. The settlers also probably have their regrets and would probably do things differently to avoid the famine, disease, and difficult living conditions that almost took down the colony.
