A Monumental Disappointment

Supposedly a retracing of the journey of the Independents and Separatists that wound up making up the majority of the passengers on the Mayflower.


 Monumental was instead a monumental disappointment.

I suffered through it and discovered Cameron's point was merely the obvious - the Mayflower Pilgrims (our name for them, not theirs) were a group of folks seeking escape from what amounted to a totalitarian society.

Most important to the majority was religious liberty.

Cameron's correct on those counts.

However the omissions were more than glaring.

While he does get the groups 12 years in Holland correctly; he omits that
there were several individual congregations of former Puritans, contrary minded Christians, Separatists, etc. who had joined together in a loose knit confederacy of sorts.

Cameron mentions only Rev. John Robinson, a good man, but no rock star.

No mention at all of Thomas Hooker who had been part of Lothrop's congregation that fled to Holland for 12 years and who came to America later, got a load of the Mass Bay Colony (Puritans) running roughshod over Plymouth; rounded up a few fellows and settled Connecticut solely to escape the dreaded Puritans.
Quite the contrary - according to Cameron the Mayflower *was* a boatload of Puritans.

There were no Puritans on the Mayflower

(PA Mayflower Society has a nice piece on "Pilgrims not Puritans")

No mention of Rev. Lothrop, who was captured and jailed at the time of the sailing; spent longer in prison than anyone else who came out alive, came to America, settled Barnstable Mass and has (so far) 6 US Presidents as direct descendants.

No mention of Stephen Hopkins the only passenger (a "stranger" as he was not a member of any of the congregations) who had been to America on a previous trip to Jamestown (was ship wrecked en-route; his story alone makes most 007 stories pale by comparison)

Despite Cameron's over-the-top judgmental (and I consider unchristian)  remarks regarding Gays and his apparent fear of Freemasons; I had looked forward to the film - in fact it was the 1st time I had been inside a movie theater in over 10 years.

Maybe someday someone will make a truthful film about the early settlers that became the Mayflower passengers. 

If so, they should start their research at the 

Sturgis Library in Barnstable, Mass.