Man Ritchie's 'Fountain of Youth' Isn't a True Story, however There's Fact to It

Fountain of Youth, directed by Man Ritchie, is an adventure-packed film that focuses on one of the vital mysterious searches in historical past. John Krasinski and Natalie Portman play Luke and Charlotte Purdue, a brother and sister staff exploring the globe to seek out the titular Fountain of Youth. Joined by Domhnall Gleeson, Eiza Gonzalez, and Stanley Tucci, amongst others, the Purdues and their seek for Fountain of Youth is stuffed with twists, turns, and glorious performances that do the legend justice.

Steeped within the legends surrounding the immortality-giving water, Fountain of Youth attracts on tales that return millennia. The Fountain of Youth has historic origins and, whereas it’s related to Spaniard Ponce de Leon, the historical past behind its existence, location, and makes use of goes properly past one lone explorer. There is no such thing as a Fountain of Youth, per se, however that does not make the tales about it any much less fascinating. Fountain of Youth faucets into historical past and fantasy paying homage to Indiana Jones himself, making it an interesting journey and an eye-opening take a look at the previous.

Historical Writers Described The Fountain’s Water as Offering Human Longevity

The earliest mentions of water that offered people with years far past expectations come from writers like Herotodus, a Greek historian who wrote throughout the sixth century BC. Herodotus positioned the supply of the water someplace in Africa close to modern-day Ethiopia. In his Histories, Herodotus wrote about how Ethiopians had been characterised by the Ichthyophagoi to King Cyrus of Persia. They instructed Cyrus:

the larger variety of them reached the age of 100 and twenty years, and a few surpassed even this… [the king] carried out them to a sure spring, within the water of which they washed and have become extra glossy of pores and skin, as if it had been a spring of oil; and from it there got here a scent because it had been of violets: and the water of this spring… was so exceedingly weak that it was not potential for something to drift upon it, both wooden or any of these issues that are lighter than wooden, however all of them went to the underside. If this water which they’ve be actually corresponding to it’s stated to be, it might probably be the trigger why the individuals are long-lived, as making use of it for all the needs of life.

Centuries later, Alexander the Nice was stated to have looked for the Fountain of Youth and legends all through the jap Mediterranean developed across the Macedonian ruler and his quest for the Fountain in addition to on the Fountain alone. By the seventh century AD, the Fountain of Youth was a component in Muslim and Hindu traditions, too.

Within the Islamic custom, particularly, al-Khidr was together with his cousin, Alexander the Nice. After they separated, al-Khidr discovered the Fountain of Youth and, when he drank from it, “felt instantly {that a} new spirit and a brand new vitality had set inside him.” To check the water, al-Khidr threw a lifeless fish in it and watched because it got here again to life.

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Medieval Writers and Artists Expanded on the Legend

Drawing from historic tales, writers like John de Mandeville, a twelfth century traveler, positioned the Fountain of Youth in Polombe (seemingly in India). Based on his telling, there existed a properly that had the “odor and savor of all spices.”

Mandeville stated the properly got here “out of Paradise, and subsequently it’s so virtuous.” Descriptions like these, mixed with earlier lore, led to the creation of work, carvings, and tapestries that integrated ever-changing bodily elements of the Fountain.

The attract of the life-preserving elixir was akin to a fairy story whereas concurrently capturing an illusive promise of defying age. Fountains, notably, had been additionally related to saints and Paradise, as could be clear when the Fountain of Youth was linked to its most well-known seeker. By the late Center Ages, explorer Ponce de Leon was featured in lots of the inventive representations of the Fountain of Youth on account of widespread connections between the Spaniard and the restorative liquid.

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Ponce De Leon Grew to become Linked to the Fountain Through the sixteenth Century

Ponce de Leon went to Florida throughout the early 1500s to arrange a colony on behalf of Spain. Ponce de Leon, then governor of Puerto Rico, was tasked with discovering the island of “Bimini,” however there was no point out of the Fountain. Scholar J. Michael Francis instructed Historical past the next.

Whether or not Ponce de Leon was searching for the Fountain of Youth doesn’t matter as a result of, in response to his contemporaries, he was. Herndando de Escalante Fontaneda was shipwrecked as a 13-year-old boy within the Florida Keys within the late sixteenth century. When he later wrote about his experiences, he recognized Ponce de Leon as somebody who the hunted for the Fountain.

Moreover, males like Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo y Valdes used the concept of Ponce de Leon searching for the Fountain of Youth to mock him. Historical past professor Ryan Ok. Smith instructed Historical past:

Fountain of Youth is offered to observe now on Apple TV+.

Fountain of Youth

Launch Date

Could 23, 2025

Runtime

125 minutes

Writers

James Vanderbilt

Producers

Jake Myers, William Sherak, Dana Goldberg, David Ellison, Don Granger, Tripp Vinson, Ivan Atkinson