We are currently undergoing a historic storm in the Mid-Atlantic region, according to weather.com.  Ida has come ashore and her low pressure system has teamed up with the high pressure over New England to wreak havoc on the coastline. We are fine, but have had quite a bit of rain. I have a friend in Virginia Beach though, where winds are 50mph, waves are high and flooding is a threat. This is not the first time I've been in Virginia with a lot of rain, albeit without the wind and waves.  The steady rain we have personally had reminds me of a vacation and a movie. This is a blog entry I started 3 months ago, so now I thought I'd finish it up and finally post it, since the rain seems to be a common thread...

     I've resisted buying the movie, "The New World", since I don't usually care for modern made movies, which tend to stray from historical accuracy.  However, we were in Jamestown in 2004, during the filming of this movie. We visited the living history center and got to go on two of the three ships. We were told that one of the ships were out for filming "The New World". Then we visited the actual site of the Jamestown settlement a few months ago. Because I finally found the DVD at a used bookstore for $4, I decided to take a chance on it. This movie elicited strong opinions from us!

     Before I tell you about the plot, I'm going to tell you how the movie was made. There are special features on the DVD, which we always enjoy, going behind the scenes. This movie was made entirely in the Jamestown area and in England. The setting was perfect! The costumes are very close to what I have researched, even down to the snakes in the earlobes of the witch doctor. Excellent costumes.  (Here's my son wearing some historical armor at the Jamestown living history center in 2004.)

The Jamestown fort and Powhatten village were accurately recreated for shooting...they had actual models they could follow at the living history center.  On the DVD, they showed the process of recreating the mud and dauble for one of the buildings.

     We had to laugh, when the cast and crew said that they had to deal with a lot of rain while they were there. They shot the movie in 6 months, a time frame where that area of Virginia got record rain fall. We experienced it too!  Every summer that I lived in Texas, I carefully kept track of hurricanes. I was on the e-mail list for the hurricane center, but there had not been a single hurricane all summer. If it looked as though a hurricane was coming through, I was prepared to cancel all reservations and have us head to Colorado. However the Atlantic had looked pristine all summer. We drove out of Texas, Aug 2. When we arrived in Colonial Williamsburg 3 days later, it was raining, raining, raining. I asked someone if this rain was ever going to stop. She laughed and said, "Oh it's just a hurricane."  "A hurricane? Should we evacuate?" Oh no, this was Alex and he would bounce back to sea. She saw we had young children so she told me how to get tickets to meet with Thomas Jefferson in the dry Kimball Theater that afternoon.

The skies cleared that afternoon, but the following night we had thunderstorms in the area. Since we were in KOA Kabins, I was exceedingly thankful we had not done tent camping. We would have been washed away. Eventually we drove up to New York for a few days, then we drove back to see more of Virginia. As we drove through Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Northern Virginia, it poured, and poured, and poured.  I asked someone, "Where is all this rain coming from?" "Oh it's just a hurricane." "A hurricane? Should we evacuate?" "Oh no, it's just the remnants of Hurricane Bonnie that came up from the Florida panhandle."  The next morning the rain continued while we toured Mount Vernon, then it cleared up for a beautiful afternoon.  The next day we drove to Monticello in rain drops. Not again.  As we tried to tour the grounds of Monticello it was extremely cold and we were caught in a deluge! 

 I asked where all this rain came from. "Oh it's just a hurricane."  "Hurricane Bonnie?" "Oh no, this is the remnants of Hurricane Charlie that came up from Florida."  (The National Hurricane Center should have named this storm Clyde.)  If we went through that much rain in 2 weeks in Virginia, I can only imagine what the film crew went through.

     It was amazing to see how the film crew paid close attention to details in setting, costumes, and actors to get the story right. It's amazing because the plot line is 90% fiction and 10% historical. Basically it's the love story between John Smith and Pocahontas. (They were never in love.) Also one needs to know more than the basic history of Jamestown to follow the story. There are very few lines. Midway through John Smith finally spoke! Clarity of speaking in this movie is rare, as most of the lines were mumbled. It's an extremely artsy film, with flashes of scenes here and there and back here. My kids and I spent a week of study on Jamestown with our TOG Year 2 Unit 3 historical studies a year ago. I even had extra books for my kids to read.  Because they did not have time to read everything, my daughter chose a biography of Pocahontas. My son read a diary account of a young boy who went to Jamestown and worked under John Smith. I read both books. My son and I were the best prepared to understand most of the bare thread of history that was in this movie. Although my husband is neither a bookish nor a historical person, even he knew this movie was off target. 

     I feel as though the producers and director of this movie missed an excellent opportunity.  They had the entire cast and crew in location of the original settings of Jamestown and England. The costume designers designed authentic costumes.  However the creativity got in the way of historical veracity, leaving a confusing mess to plunder through while viewing. If you are looking at using this movie to teach your kids the history of Jamestown, a book is better!  In fact, a trip to the Jamestown living history center, is a terrific interactive experience.  Oh, and contrary to present evidence, it's not always wet in Virginia!