The Portrayal of Indians in Film

I remember watching old westerns on Saturday afternoons. The exploding guns were a constant background noise at my grandmother’s house. She was enthralled with those old movies. I don’t remember any of her specific opinions, just that she really like to watch westerns. I didn’t. I would watch for about five minutes, get bored, and then find something else to do. My grandfather would be in his wood shop, so I would either go bother him or get on my bike and ride the countryside.

The bad acting and painted sets did nothing to pique my interest. John Wayne was an idiot. I mean seriously. Who talked like that? I thought something was wrong with him, people felt sorry for him, and that’s why they watched.

The portrayal of the Indians also saddened me. A young child was able to tell that something was wrong with how the American film industry depicted a people whom she hardly knew anything about. Growing up in western North Carolina, my family took us children on Saturday trips to Cherokee. Just for something to do, we’d all pile in the car and visit the shops on highway 441. I’d run in and out of the the tipi in front of the big gift shop, and we’d get our picture taken with the big Indian chief. He had dark skin and wore his long feathered headdress. The Indians I meet were a peaceful. They were so very opposite from what I saw on TV, and I thought that there was no way that Indians could be a savage race and kill just to kill. So, to me, those westerns were hard to believe.

It wasn’t until later in life when I learned that the Cherokee never wore long feathered headdresses. They didn't live in tipis either. These people were accommodating what Hollywood had made them out to be so they could pay the bills. So today, I thought I would try out one of those films again. I wanted to look at those films with an adult eye, to see what I thought I saw as a child, but hopefully, be able to better articulate how it made me feel.

I chose The Last of the Mohicans directed by Michael Mann because it’s not really a western, it was filmed in western North Carolina, and all my friends have seen it. It was all the rage when it came out in 1992, and they said, “Daniel Day-Lewis is sooo hot!”

Yeah well, Daniel Day-Lewis didn’t really do it for me. There were about three nice Indians in the film, and the rest were on the wrong side of any law. This is where the stereotype of murdering heathens came in, and that wasn’t the only typecast.

Even though he was raised by Indians, Day-Lewis’ character, Hawkeye, was white, and that automatically made him the hero. His woman played by Madeline Stowe, was the typical strong and resistant lady to her obedient-to-man woman’s role in life. And of course, the whole movie basically revolved around this couple’s love story, but I never really saw their first connection. All of a sudden they were madly in love.

There was a lot of fighting, blood, and things that went boom. Left is a battle scene where the Huron attack the British. Don't watch all of it. You'll get bored. Just watch until Magua rips the Colonel's heart out. That certainly could have been done better because earlier in the film he promises, "When the Gray Hair is dead, Magua will eat his heart."  Yet, we never see it.

The scene makes me ask, what's wrong with this guy? He's ripping a man's heart out and he's so calm about it. He says in monotone, "Just to let you know before I kill you, I will wipe your seed off this planet." And then he holds the guys heart up and looks at it. Dude, scream, holler, take a bite out of it! Do something! You've just killed this guy and then you're going after his daughters. Be the stereotypical Indian that Hollywood has proclaimed you to be.

All in all, the special effects weren’t bad, but they could have been a lot better. And the plot was the love story anyway. It was like the battle scenes were only put in the to make the movie seem more authentic. The majority of the Indians were there to be the bad guys and to stand in the way of the white guy’s happily-ever-after. (The white guy playing and Indian.)

The music was excellent. (Check out the score on the right.) It brought life to an otherwise dull story. The beating of the single drum hinted at war and Indians. It was dramatic. "The Gael," the name of the musical theme, like a good story, started out slow and built to a climax, yet I don't recollect any Indians playing the fiddle... ever. And not to mention that the word "Gael," according to Dictionary.com, is a Celtic term meaning Scottish Celt or Highlander. Hmm... really?

So how does this movie compare to the old westerns my grandmother used to watch? Well, the acting is slightly better but not much. The use of real landscapes was a plus, but the plot was dry. I’m not an expert in history, so I can’t tell you one way or the other if there was any truth to the subplot. Yes, the French Indian war did happen, but that’s about all I can verify for you. Yet, something tells me that’s probably all there is true in this film.