Celluloid Indians: Native Americans and FilmNative American characters have been the most malleable of metaphors for filmmakers. The likeable Doc of Stagecoach (1939) had audiences on the edge of their seats with dire warnings about ?that old butcher, Geronimo.? Old Lodgeskins of Little Big Man (1970) had viewers crying out against the demise of the noble, wise chief and his kind and simple people. In 1995 Disney created a beautiful, peace-loving ecologist and called her Pocahontas. Only occasionally have Native Americans been portrayed as complex, modern characters in films like Smoke Signals. Celluloid Indians is an accessible, insightful overview of Native American representation in film over the past century. Beginning with the birth of the movie industry, Jacquelyn Kilpatrick carefully traces changes in the cinematic depictions of Native peoples and identifies cultural and historical reasons for those changes. In the late twentieth century, Native Americans have been increasingly involved with writing and directing movies about themselves, and Kilpatrick places appropriate emphasis on the impact that Native American screenwriters and filmmakers have had on the industry. Celluloid Indians concludes with a valuable, in-depth look at influential and innovative Native Americans in today's film industry. |
Contents
Genesis of the Stereotypes | 1 |
The Silent Scrim | 16 |
From D W Griffiths The Battle at Elderbrush Gulch | 25 |
The Cowboy Talkies of the 1930s 1940s and 1950s | 36 |
From William Seiters Allegheny Uprising | 44 |
From John Fords Stagecoach | 55 |
From Delmer Daves Broken Arrow | 60 |
From John Fords The Searchers | 62 |
From Franc Roddams War Party | 114 |
From Jonathan Wackss Powwow Highway | 119 |
From Kevin Costners Dances with Wolves | 128 |
From Michael Manns The Last of the Mohicans | 144 |
From Michael Ciminos The Sunchaser | 165 |
The American Indian Aesthetic | 178 |
Robert Redford Gerald Vizenor and Charlie Hill | 187 |
Thomas King with Graham Greene | 194 |
The 1960s and 1970s | 65 |
From Abraham Polonskys Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here | 74 |
From Ralph Nelsons Soldier Blue | 80 |
From Milos Formans One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest | 99 |
The Sympathetic 1980s and 1990s | 101 |
Director George Burdeau | 207 |
Coming Attractions? | 233 |
Filmography | 249 |
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