Reel American History - Films

: vo = voice-over
0:00:35 Pocahontas's Prayer: Pocahontas (vo): Come, spirit. Help us sing the story of our land. You are our mother; we, your field of corn. We rise from out of the soul of you.
0:07:20 Smith Avoids Execution: (Smith is being led to a noose as the colonists arrive in the New World.)
Newport: Let him go.
Guard: You said to hang him, Sir.
Newport: Now remember, Smith, you've come to these shores in chains. You're under cloud which will darken considerably if I hear any more of your mutinous remarks. Is that understood?
(Smith nods.)
0:11:50 First Contact: Smith (vo): How many lands behind me? How many seas? What blows and dangers? Fortune ever my friend.
0:14:50 Envoy to Powhatan: (After an Indian has been shot for â€œstealingâ€ a hatchet)
Newport: We've lost the favor of the naturals. Had we not sighted land the day we did, I would have turned back. We have eaten the majority of our stores, our best men are sick with fever, the rest will soon breed mutiny -- we might as well be shipwrecked. Now, the naturals tell me of a city up the river and of a mighty king who lives there. I propose we send an envoy to this king to see whether he can be persuaded to trade with us. Meanwhile I shall return to England for fresh supplies. I'll not be back until spring. Ratcliffe here will be in command. As to who will approach the savage king, I needn't tell you it will be a hazardous mission.
Man: Captain Smith is the only professional soldier among us.
Man: Smith, sir, what are his qualifications?
Man: Those you lack. [laughter]
Newport: Smith. You have an opportunity to repair your reputation. I expect you to welcome it.
0:16:33 Smith's Utopia: Smith (vo): Who are you, whom I so faintly hear? Who urge me ever on?
Newport (from a distance, talking to himself): You have the makings of a leader, Smith. Can one rely on you?
Smith (vo, on boat): What voice is this that speaks within me, guides me towards the best? We shall make a new start, a fresh beginning. Here the blessings of the earth are bestowed upon all. 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.
Man: Captain, we haven't the draft to go any further.
Smith: Put in.
Smith (vo): None shall eat up carelessly what his friends got worthily or steal away that which virtue has stored up. Men shall not make each other their spoil.
Man (after boat has landed): Let's go back, Sir, gather a larger party. We're lost.
(Their Indian guide runs away.)
Man: There the naturals go!
Smith: Let him go!
0:25:50 The Rescue: (As Smith is about to be killed, Pocahontas jumps on him)
Smith (vo): At the moment I was to die, she threw herself upon me.
Pocahontas (to Powhatan): Spare his life.
Advisor to Powhatan: We must drive them away, while they are still few.
2nd Advisor: If they do us no harm, why should we care? It's only a bit of swampland they want.
1st Advisor: For now. But what will they take in times to come?
Powhatan (referencing Pocahontas): He can teach her about his land across the waves. If they do not leave . . . we shall drive them into the sea.
0:30:37 Smith's Utopia Found: (As Smith learns the ways of the Indians in the village, he plays and learns with Pocahontas.)
Smith (vo): All the children of the king were beautiful, but she, the youngest, was so exceedingly so, that the sun himself, though he saw her often, was surprised whenever she came out into his presence. Her father had a dozen wives, a hundred children, but she was his favorite. She exceeded the rest not only in feature and proportion but in wit and spirit too. All loved her. . . .
0:32:32: Innocence: Smith (vo): They are gentle, loving, faithful, lacking in all guile and trickery. The words denoting lying, deceit, greed, envy, slander, and forgiveness have never been heard. They have no jealousy, no sense of possession. Real, what I thought a dream.
0:34:26 Powhatan and Pocahontas: Powhatan: Promise meâ€"You will put your people before all else.
Pocahontas: I know myself.
Powhatan: Even your own heart. He is not one of us.
0:36:28: Love: Smith (vo): Love. Shall we deny it when it visits us? Shall we not take what we are given? There is only this. All else is unreal.
Pocahontas (vo): Mother...where do you live? In the sky? The clouds? The sea? Show me your face. Give me a sign. We rise. We rise. Afraid of myself. A god, he seems to me. What else is life but being near you? Do they suspect? Oh, to be given to you...you to me. I will be faithful to you. True. Two no more. One. One. I am. I am.
0:43:22 Kid stuff: Wraith-like children: Where have you been?
It's like seeing a ghost.
Yeah, you look like you've come back from the dead.
Smith: What's happened here? Where's Captain Radcliffe?
Children: No word. Gone.
Shut your mouth.
You shoulda never trusted him.
People say he went over to England.
We're starving.
Did you bring food?
Smith: I brought food.
Children: Someone got killed. Just fell over.
Four months of stealing and stealing and stealing and stealing.
Look at him. Bastard.
Get up!
Gambling. They bowl
while the houses fall down.
Gambling.
Look at the church we don't even--
All the sickness that's been coming in from the marsh.
Smith: Who's taking care of you?
Children: No one,
That's all it is, just dying and sickness and all that.
Hey, I saw a body in the mud.
You're a liar!
I saw a leg in the bed.
You are a liar!
Four people died last night . . .
Why was the leg in the bed?
. . . and they're eating 'em.
Why was the leg in the bed?
Wingfield: Thieves! Jackals! Lash their feet!
0:46:50 Doubts: Smith (vo): Tell her. Tell her what? It was a dream. Now I am awake. I let her love me. I made her love me. . . . I must.
0:47:50 Despair: Smith (vo): Damnation is like this.
0:48:21 Discipline: Smith: He that will not work shall not eat. The labors of honest and industrious men shall not be consumed to maintain the idleness of a few.
0:48:40 Disgust: Smith (vo): While they starve, they dig for gold.
0:49:17 Hell: Smith (vo): Bad water. Sturgeon gone. Mutterings.
Crazed colonists: . . . the waste cities, they shall live in them. They shall plant vineyards and drink the wine. In that day . . .
Love good and hate evil!
I will raise up the tent of David and close up the breeches of his tent.
Take away from me the noise of your music and your songs, so I will not hear
the melody of thy harp.
The Lord has given the command, and he will smash them
large house into pieces and the small house into bits!
Calm colonist: Somebody should shot Small there, He hasn't got a ghost of a chance, and he'll contaminate us all. He used Wortham's spoon -- now Wortham's gone, my friend. Have we got to wait till all is dead?
0:50:21 Ackley's dead: Old colonist: Sir, Ackley's dead. Somebody ate his hands. Went out in the height of style anyhow. Such tranquility, you'd think he could speak. I shall miss him. I think we all shall.
Smith: We're 38 now.
0:51:08 Debate: Smith (vo): To go back up that river. To love her in the wild. What holds you here? What are your intentions towards her? Towards them?
0:53:33 Pocahontas Brings Food to the Colony: Smith: Don't put yourself in danger. You don't have to do anything else. For us.
Pocahontas: Why have you not come to me?
Smith: I know, my love. Don't trust me. You don't know who I am.
Pocahontas: Remember.
Pocahontas (vo): Who are you whom I love.
0:57:33 Start over?: Smith (vo): There's something I know when I'm with you that I forget when I'm away. Tell me, my love, did you wish for me to come back and live with you again?
Pocahontas (vo): Free.
Smith (vo): My true light.
Pocahontas (vo): Can love lie?
Smith (vo): My America.
Pocahontas (vo): Where are you, my love?
Smith (vo): That fort is not the world. The river leads back there. It leads onward too. Deeper. Into the wild. Start over. Exchange this false life for a true one. Give up the name of Smith.
1:00:14 Before the Battle: Pocahontas: Come away.
Smith: You must tell me why. They can't hear. I've sent them away.
Pocahontas: He [Powhatan] sees you mean to stay. They're coming. Make peace with him.
Smith: He won't accept peace. Why would he?
Pocahontas: Come away.
Smith: And where would we live? In the woods? On a treetop? A hole in the ground?
(They touch.)
Smith: You have to come with me -- into the fort -- your people will know you came here. They'll find out soon enough.
(She turns and runs into the forest.)
1:10:00 Mutiny: Lewes: The princess is up the river at Pastancy. They sent her to her Uncle Patowomeck, lord of the naked devils of that region and, by the by, an acquaintance of mine. So I get talking to his nibs, and he proposes to sell her. He says with her at the fort, the emperor will not dare attack us. He dotes on her.
John Smith: Youâ€™re certain sheâ€™s the one you saw?
Lewes: With these eyes. I spoke to the king directly.
JS: And what does this rogue propose to sell her for?
L: Well, I was getting to that. His most favorite thing is combs, but in this case he seems to have his heart set on a kettle. You know, a copper kettle, like my mother had for making stew. What use he means to make of the instrument I cannot say.
Argall: Well?
JS: We donâ€™t take hostages. King James would not approve.
A: Youâ€™d rather see us annihilated?
JS: Sheâ€™s done enough for us. She risked a beating in of her own brains to save mine. Had she not fed us, you would have starved. Sheâ€™s been the instrument to preserve this colony from disaster.
A: Flesh fly! She and her-
JS: We shall not return her kindness by making her a captive! Come, Argall, threaten me! Then Iâ€™d know I was gonna live for a thousand years.
A: She and her lot are on the verge of killing us all. I expect there will be scarce a handful alive when the boats return, if they ever do. You told us yourself that her father regards her as no one else. Or do you have private reasons for this attitude of yours?
JS: Return to your post. The penalty for disobeying an order of the president is hanging. Youâ€™re breaking the laws. This is mutiny.
A: Me breaking the laws. I have information Smith here is planning to marry the wench and make himself King of Virginiaâ€¦. Youâ€™re no longer in command, Smitty.
1:14:28 Hoping: Pocahontas (vo): O, Mother, has he sent this ship for me?
1:14:40 The Morality of the Abduction: Argall (vo): Conscience is nuisance. A fly, a barking dog. If you donâ€™t believe you have one, what trouble can it be for you?
1:15:12 Pocahontas Prays: Pocahontas (vo): Mother, you are my strength, or I have none.
1:20:13 Smith Explaining: Smith: I didnâ€™t want to harm you. And now thereâ€™s disaster all around us. We should have stopped before it was too late.
1:21:52 Pocahontas Trying: Pocahontas (vo): What is right? Give. Wrong? Who is this man? Now . . . all is perfect. Let me be lost. True. You flow through me like a river. Come. Follow me.
1:23:34 Newport Tempts Smith: Newport: The king wants you to return to England to prepare an expedition of your own . . . to see if you might find a passage to the Indies. I remember when you had sight and ambition. Shall you not press on? Shall you be a discoverer of passages which you yourself refuse to explore, beyond the threshold, that is?
1:23:53 A Way to Get Through: Pocahontas (vo): I will find joy in all I see.
1:24:13 Newportâ€™s Speech: Newport: Look beyond these gates. Eden lies about us still. We have escaped the Old World, and its bondage. Let us make a new beginning and create a fresh example for humanity. We are the pioneers of the world, the advance guard sent on through the wilderness to break a new path. And our youth is our strength and our inexperience our wisdom. God has given us a promised land, a great inheritance. Woe betide if ever we turn our back on Him. Let us prepare a land where a man may rise to his true stature, a land of the future, a new kingdom of the spirit. Remember what this country was. . . .
1:25:51 â€œI Belong to Youâ€: Pocahontas (vo): Am I as you like? His eyes.
John Smith: You knew me as I was long ago. I have never truly been the man I seem to you to be.
P (some vo): (What does he say?) Come, letâ€™s sit by the river. (Mean?) I canâ€™t sleep til I see you again. (Look up.) You have no evil. I belong to you. (He knows) (Where am I?)
1:29:17 Dumped: Mary: He's left you, Princess. He told you a pack of lies. Forget about him.
1:29:44 Terrible news: Colonist: I, uh, have some terrible news. Captain Smith is dead. He drowned in the crossing. He loved you very much.
1:30:54 The Awful Truth: Pocahontas (vo): You have gone away with my life. Killed the God in me.
1:35:50 Maryâ€™s Wisdom: Mary: A nature like yours can turn trouble into good. All this sorrow will give you strength and point you on a higher way. Think of a tree, how it grows round its wounds. If a branch breaks off, it donâ€™t stop, but keeps reaching towards the light. We must meet misfortune boldly and not suffer it to frighten us. We must act the play out, then live our troubles down, my lady.
1:38:15 Loss: Rolfe (vo): The loss of my wife and daughter has led me to understand her loss as well.
1:39:15 â€œAre you kind?â€: John Rolfe (vo): Hours pass. She speaks not a word. Who are you? What do you dream of?
Pocahontas: Weâ€™re like grass. Are you kind?
JR (vo): She weaves all things together. I touched her long ago without knowing her name.
1:42:08 Rolfe Proposes: Rolfe: Suppose I asked you to marry me, what would you say?
Pocahontas: Are you asking me?â€¦ Where would we live?
R: Here. England, if you wish. Perhaps that would be best. We couldâ€"well, you could forget your life in this placeâ€¦ Why do you shrink from me? Wonâ€™t you say yes?
P: If you like.
R: This isnâ€™t what I expected, Rebecca.
P: Iâ€™m sorry.
R: Why are you crying?
P: I suppose, I must be happy.
R: You do not love me now. Someday you will.
1:45:44 Pocahontas Trying to Love: Pocahontas (vo): Mother, why can I not feel as I should? Must? Once false, I must not be again. Take out the thorn. He is like a tree. He shelters me. I lie in his shade. Can I ignore my heart? What is from you and what is not?
1:47:27 Success: Pocahontas (vo): Great Sun, I offer you thanks. You give life to the trees and hills . . . to the streams of water to all.
1:48:25 Pocahontas Still Struggling: Pocahontas (vo): Mother, your love is before my eyes. Show me your way. Teach me your path. Give me a humble heart.
1:52:05 Smith Is Back: Pocahontas: Iâ€™m married to him. He lives.
1:52:48 Rolfe accommodating: Rolfe (vo): Sweet wife, love made the bond. Love can break it too. There is that in her I shall not know.
1:56:55 Announced at Court: Announcer: Let rolling streams their gladness show with gentle murmurs whilst they play and in their wild meanders flow, rejoicing in this blessed day. Kind health descends on downy wings, angels conduct her on the way. The New Worldâ€™s princess new life brings, and swells our joys upon this day.
2:00:17 Rolfe Understands: Rolfe: I think you still love the man and will not be at peace till you see him. In my vanity, I thought I could make you love me, and one cannot do that or should not.
2:00:56 Pocahontas Strokes Rolfe: Pocahontas: You are the man I thought you were and more.
2:01:09 â€œDid I make a mistake in coming here?â€: John Smith: Did I make a mistake in coming here? I would have come before, except Iâ€™ve been away from the capital. Perhaps, Iâ€™m out of order speaking with you this way, but Iâ€™ve thought of you often. So after I left, it went well for you? I heard the king and queen received you. Everybody says you were a great favorite. They all speak of you. One hears them in the streets. â€œHer Ladyship.â€ Who would have guessed it?
(pause)
JS: You knew I had promise, didnâ€™t you?
Pocahontas: Yes. Did you find your Indies, John? You shall.
JS: I may have sailed past them.
(pause)
JS: I thought it was a dream, what we knew in the forest. Itâ€™s the only truth. It seems as if I were speaking to you for the first time.
2:07:03 What Rolfe Wants to Hear: Pocahontas: My husband
2:08:56 Pocahontas Is Finally Happy: Pocahontas (vo): Mother, now I know where you live.