Fact-Based `Squanto' Shows Flip Side Of First Thanksgiving

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XX 1/2 "Squanto: A Warrior's Tale," with Adam Beach, Michael Gambon and Mandy Patinkin. Directed by Xavier Koller, from a screenplay by Darlene Craviotto. Alderwood, Aurora, Bay, Broadway Market, Crossroads, Everett Mall, Kent, Lewis & Clark, Mountlake 9, SeaTac Mall, Snohomish, Totem Lake. "PG" - Parental guidance suggested; moderate violence. -----------------------------------------------------------------

With basis in fact and a sincere, alternative approach to familiar history, "Squanto: A Warrior's Tale" is certainly a step up from the typically crass and shallow content of many recent Disney live-action releases. It's the kind of movie Walt Disney would have approved of: a pure adventure that's educational without being boring.

That also makes it the kind of movie that parents, if so inclined, can discuss with their children afterward, enhancing the experience with a mutually beneficial history lesson. The same definitely could not be said of "Blank Check," a Disney movie from earlier this year that glorified materialism while pretending to uphold more meaningful values.

Still, even this earnest Native American history lesson cannot fully escape the drawbacks of Disney's committee-driven mode of production.

While kids will probably appreciate the movie's hyped-up energy, you can't help but feel that some important issues are being glossed over by a compromised emphasis on routine action-adventure.

Darlene Craviotto's screenplay offers the flip side to the pilgrim's story of the first Thanksgiving, telling the story - set on the Massachussetts coast in the early 1600s - from the viewpoint of Squanto (Adam Beach), a young, newlywed member of the coastal Patuxet tribe.

Lured aboard an English trade ship under friendly pretense, Squanto and a fellow warrior are kidnapped and taken to Plymouth, England, where they are forced to perform as "noble savages" by Sir George (Michael Gambon), the flamboyant trader who exploits them for profit.

Finding sanctuary in a monastery, Squanto is befriended by a monk (Mandy Patinkin) who encourages the cultural exchange that allows Squanto to eventually return to his homeland. There, despite the devastation of his tribe by the white man's disease, he advocates peaceful cooperation between Indians and the newly arrived Mayflower pilgrims.

Being a Disney adventure, this is all handled like a Cliff's Notes version of the first Thanksgiving. It's never very long before a chase scene or a tense encounter with greedy Englishmen is tossed in to satisfy short attention spans.

But "Squanto" maintains an admirable level of authenticity. It's a shame that the film's visual style is so flatly uninspired, because the costumes, sets and period details have been carefully re-created on locations in Nova Scotia and Quebec. Robbie Greenberg's cinematography is professionally adequate, but the story begs for visual distinction. Swiss director Xavier Koller (whose "Journey of Hope" won the Oscar for best foreign film) falls prey to lapses in pace, as if he weren't fully engaged by the material.

Beach, a Native American with a background in Canadian film and theater, brings plenty of newcomer's enthusiasm to his lead role, as do Patinkin and especially Gambon, who is all bluster and bombast in his hissably villainous role. They all help to give "Squanto" the sincerity it needs to overcome its own formulaic drawbacks.