Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This movie had great reviews, so I was eager to watch it, but threw it in the trash afterwards. Sadly, this is an example of historical revisionism, not a "true story." I'd give it zero stars if that were possible. The real Tisquantum (nicknamed Squanto) was an adolescent, not a married young man, when kidnapped by Spanish, not English, slave traders. He was purchased on the slave block by monks, who taught him the Spanish language and the Christian faith. He lived with them for five years, until they secured a home for him with an English family in London. In England Squanto learned a second language, English, and waited another five years until he found passage back to North America. When he finally arrived home, he found his tribe completely wiped out from disease (they had no immunity to pathogens picked up accidently from the Europeans) -- that one bit the movie did correctly report -- and in his sorrow went to live in seclusion in the wilderness near his tribal village. A year or so later, Samoset found him, told him of the Pilgrims who'd settled in his village, and encouraged him to meet with them. There was no near-war between Pilgrim and Native American hostile to them (hostilities did happen, but later); no chief's son who was saved from death by the joint actions of a European doctor and American Medicine Man. It just didn't happen the way this movie depicts. Instead, the Pilgrims were amazed that Squanto spoke English. According to their records, he welcomed them, and he taught this group of non-farmers how to survive. The Pilgrims had lost huge numbers from the deadly winter, but with his help the group flourished. They also indicated he embraced the Christian faith. This film skips over all this completely, and adds in terrible material such as being thrown in a pit to fight a bear for the entertainment of the British population. Not only did that never happen to Squanto, there's no record that any Native Americans were treated that way in Europe. This isn't to say that the Native Americans weren't abused by Europeans -- they were, and much of the relations between them were poor. But that sad truth doesn't justify completely re-writing Sqanto's story just to prove some kind of point. Sometimes filmmakers are flexible with history for the purposes of creating a more exciting story (frankly, much of human history is kind of boring). But I wish they hadn't changed this one. The true story is exciting enough; perhaps someday Squanto's real story will be filmed.