Sunday, September 7, 2008
Research Topic 24:Henry Nash Smith, "Virgin Land:The American West as Symbol and Myth"
book "Virgin Land: The American West as Symbol & Myth"
The Western Films of John Ford
The Western Films of John Ford, J.A. Place, The Citadel Press, Secaucus, New Jersey, 1974
"For our purposes, suffice it to say that the concept of the West embodies conflicting ideals. On the one hand it represents essentially antisocial, individual, and solitary values through which a man can escape the implicitly corrupting influence of society. On the other, the West represents a pure, natural, fertile wilderness in which the wilderness in which the society of man can build a new community based on the cleansing, healing effects of nature." (p. 4)
Indians in Iron Horse, 1924
"The Indians who kill Brandon represent another physical hardship that must be overcome by taming the land. At a later point the men are working and singing when Indians come to attack them. The men stop for a moment, fight off the Indians, then go back to work, still singing. But the Indians who kill Brandon are more than simply another force to be overcome. Their leader is a white man who will later prove to be the villain. He is the only one who takes on a personal identity." (P. 20)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,
(The Indian agent & his men are corrupt, thus providing at least some sympathy for the plight of the wronged Indians who then rebel. The concept is that older, wiser Indians desire peace but young, "wild" Indians cannot be "controlled")
"Thus the Indians in the film exist in their least complex context-they simply represent savage forces, bringing in an element of danger that remains impersonal throughout the film." (p. 157)
Two Rode Together (1961)
"Ford's own racial attitudes are made clear in the captive boy's insistence that he is an Indian and does not want to be 'rescued'. The boy's feelings question the basic assumption of white superiority. He is not like the women, who feel they have been polluted and cannot return; he wants to remain, and he cannot function in a white society that assumes the people he has known as his own are inferior. The director's feelings are made formally explicit when the boy is put in a cage. Ford cuts between a close-up of the boy, seen without the bars obstructing the view, and his point of view of the white people who, shot through the bars, seem to be imprisoned." (p. 208)
Cheyenne Autumn, 1964
Cheyenne Autumn is often described as Ford's apology to the Indians he presented so one-dimensionally in his previous films. The great nobility of the Cheyenne, the absurdly evil German camp commandant, and the film's outcome, when the U.S. government reverses its decision concerning the Cheyenne, support this idea. But for a variety of reasons, this view is not very useful in an examination of John Ford's work. First, Ford has presented us with numerous noble Indians throughout his films; indeed, in almost every film in which an Indian emerges as a personality, he has as complex and compelling a personality as do the whites. Cochise of Fort Apache is a far more honorable man than Colonel Thursday. Scar of The Searchers is a mirror image of Ethan Edwards, and the intriguing old chief, Pony That Walks, in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is as sensitive and well intentioned as Brittles, though not so capable.
Never are Ford's individual Indians presented as stereotypical savages. But in most of the films, the Indians represent a force that the farmers and settlers must overcome. Indians are presented, not as a hostile people, or even as hostile individuals, but as a mass. Any that emerge from the mass do so just as whites emerge from groups of farmers, townspeople, or settlers. " (p. 230)
"In the very simplest of terms, the innocence the Indians symbolize has become more dear to Ford than the progress that destroys the innocence." (p. 231)
This movie needs to be watched by me
"For our purposes, suffice it to say that the concept of the West embodies conflicting ideals. On the one hand it represents essentially antisocial, individual, and solitary values through which a man can escape the implicitly corrupting influence of society. On the other, the West represents a pure, natural, fertile wilderness in which the wilderness in which the society of man can build a new community based on the cleansing, healing effects of nature." (p. 4)
Indians in Iron Horse, 1924
"The Indians who kill Brandon represent another physical hardship that must be overcome by taming the land. At a later point the men are working and singing when Indians come to attack them. The men stop for a moment, fight off the Indians, then go back to work, still singing. But the Indians who kill Brandon are more than simply another force to be overcome. Their leader is a white man who will later prove to be the villain. He is the only one who takes on a personal identity." (P. 20)
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon,
(The Indian agent & his men are corrupt, thus providing at least some sympathy for the plight of the wronged Indians who then rebel. The concept is that older, wiser Indians desire peace but young, "wild" Indians cannot be "controlled")
"Thus the Indians in the film exist in their least complex context-they simply represent savage forces, bringing in an element of danger that remains impersonal throughout the film." (p. 157)
Two Rode Together (1961)
"Ford's own racial attitudes are made clear in the captive boy's insistence that he is an Indian and does not want to be 'rescued'. The boy's feelings question the basic assumption of white superiority. He is not like the women, who feel they have been polluted and cannot return; he wants to remain, and he cannot function in a white society that assumes the people he has known as his own are inferior. The director's feelings are made formally explicit when the boy is put in a cage. Ford cuts between a close-up of the boy, seen without the bars obstructing the view, and his point of view of the white people who, shot through the bars, seem to be imprisoned." (p. 208)
Cheyenne Autumn, 1964
Cheyenne Autumn is often described as Ford's apology to the Indians he presented so one-dimensionally in his previous films. The great nobility of the Cheyenne, the absurdly evil German camp commandant, and the film's outcome, when the U.S. government reverses its decision concerning the Cheyenne, support this idea. But for a variety of reasons, this view is not very useful in an examination of John Ford's work. First, Ford has presented us with numerous noble Indians throughout his films; indeed, in almost every film in which an Indian emerges as a personality, he has as complex and compelling a personality as do the whites. Cochise of Fort Apache is a far more honorable man than Colonel Thursday. Scar of The Searchers is a mirror image of Ethan Edwards, and the intriguing old chief, Pony That Walks, in She Wore a Yellow Ribbon is as sensitive and well intentioned as Brittles, though not so capable.
Never are Ford's individual Indians presented as stereotypical savages. But in most of the films, the Indians represent a force that the farmers and settlers must overcome. Indians are presented, not as a hostile people, or even as hostile individuals, but as a mass. Any that emerge from the mass do so just as whites emerge from groups of farmers, townspeople, or settlers. " (p. 230)
"In the very simplest of terms, the innocence the Indians symbolize has become more dear to Ford than the progress that destroys the innocence." (p. 231)
This movie needs to be watched by me
Genocide of the Mind:New Native American Writing
Genocide of the Mind: New Native American Writing, edited by MariJo Moore, Thunders Mouth Press/Nation Books, New York, 2003
From the essay, Home:Urban and Reservation by Barbara Helen Hill
"Clans follow the matrilineal line. In our home communities is you do not have a Clan to go home to, you are not considered and Indian. That presents a problem in itself because here in Canada the government has set up a line with patrilineal descendants. Legally you are an Indian in the eyes of the law if your father is an Indian but not in the traditional way if your mother isn't. We now have a lot of Indians with a card saying they are Indians but with the traditional people denying them anything. They are not considered Indians because they don't have a Clan, thus they are denied traditional information." (p. 26, speaking of Canada)
from the essay Everyone Needs Someone by MariJo Moore
"When I was growing up in the fifties, it wasn't as acceptable to be American Indian as it is now. There was no Dances With Wolves over which non-Indians romanticized. No rebellious young people totally distraught over the Vietnam War, looking for answers to society's ills through spiritual teachings. No one looking to become a medicine healer, shaman, or pipe carrier overnight. And very few who wanted to claim Indianness in order to escape the accusation of the raping of the environment. Indians were looked down on even more so that today. I still carry a bit of the pain of having Indian blood, although I have learned it is not only my pain I am carrying but also Granddaddy's and those who have gone before.
Through my writings and travels, I have met many people who claim Indian ancestry for various reasons. " (p. 42)
she then discusses how numerous people seek to be given "Indian names' as if that will make them Indian. (p. 43)
Chapter 5 Preface "Who We Are. Who We Are Not:Memories, Misconceptions, and Modifications"
"Today, after five centuries of Eurocentrism, most people have no idea which American Indian tribes still exist and which have been totally obliterated. Nor are they sure which traditions belong to what tribes. Over the years the public has been inundated with various presentations of Indian stereotyping thanks to movies and literature depicting Indigenous peoples as spiritual gurus, pagan savages, Indian princesses, or pitiful burdens of society-all this always with a mishmash of tribal cultures and traditions.
Fortunately, over the past decade there has been a rising interest in the accurate depiction of Native cultures and histories, as well as present-day struggles. More and more people (Indian and non) have become interested and respectful of the truths that somehow evaded history books." (P. 229)
From essay "Pyramids, Art, Museums, and Bones:Some Brief Memories" by David Bunn Martine
"During the 1950s, my family appeared on several TV shows. My (p. 258) grandmother described the history being depicted in the then-new movie Apache with Burt Lancaster and Jean Peters. This was a movie about the last days of the 'Geronimo War' and was quite accurate and sympathetic toward the Indian cause for the time. Grandpa and Mother sang Apache songs with Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs, and Dave Garroway." (p. 259)
from the essay Raising the American Indian Community House by Mifaunway Shunatona Hines
"I gained self-confidence to the extent that one day on reading a New York Times story about black women organizing, I was inspired to call Charlotte Curtis, the Times special sections editor. She created history for us by appointing reporter Judy Klemesrud to do a story complete with head shots, which became the first New York Times story about New York City American Indian women. It was September 18, 1968, and this article was the springboard we needed. The overall story was about our efforts to promote the new 'Indianness' to combat the emerging 'Indian is in' fashion madness. " (p. 284)
"Meantime, the headlines continued, only now the inclusion of New York City Indian presence became almost routine. In 1971 New York Times stories covered the Puyallup fish-ins in Washington, the New York State Senate's bill to return wampum belts to the Iroquois, and similar, ..." (p. 281)
From the essay, Home:Urban and Reservation by Barbara Helen Hill
"Clans follow the matrilineal line. In our home communities is you do not have a Clan to go home to, you are not considered and Indian. That presents a problem in itself because here in Canada the government has set up a line with patrilineal descendants. Legally you are an Indian in the eyes of the law if your father is an Indian but not in the traditional way if your mother isn't. We now have a lot of Indians with a card saying they are Indians but with the traditional people denying them anything. They are not considered Indians because they don't have a Clan, thus they are denied traditional information." (p. 26, speaking of Canada)
from the essay Everyone Needs Someone by MariJo Moore
"When I was growing up in the fifties, it wasn't as acceptable to be American Indian as it is now. There was no Dances With Wolves over which non-Indians romanticized. No rebellious young people totally distraught over the Vietnam War, looking for answers to society's ills through spiritual teachings. No one looking to become a medicine healer, shaman, or pipe carrier overnight. And very few who wanted to claim Indianness in order to escape the accusation of the raping of the environment. Indians were looked down on even more so that today. I still carry a bit of the pain of having Indian blood, although I have learned it is not only my pain I am carrying but also Granddaddy's and those who have gone before.
Through my writings and travels, I have met many people who claim Indian ancestry for various reasons. " (p. 42)
she then discusses how numerous people seek to be given "Indian names' as if that will make them Indian. (p. 43)
Chapter 5 Preface "Who We Are. Who We Are Not:Memories, Misconceptions, and Modifications"
"Today, after five centuries of Eurocentrism, most people have no idea which American Indian tribes still exist and which have been totally obliterated. Nor are they sure which traditions belong to what tribes. Over the years the public has been inundated with various presentations of Indian stereotyping thanks to movies and literature depicting Indigenous peoples as spiritual gurus, pagan savages, Indian princesses, or pitiful burdens of society-all this always with a mishmash of tribal cultures and traditions.
Fortunately, over the past decade there has been a rising interest in the accurate depiction of Native cultures and histories, as well as present-day struggles. More and more people (Indian and non) have become interested and respectful of the truths that somehow evaded history books." (P. 229)
From essay "Pyramids, Art, Museums, and Bones:Some Brief Memories" by David Bunn Martine
"During the 1950s, my family appeared on several TV shows. My (p. 258) grandmother described the history being depicted in the then-new movie Apache with Burt Lancaster and Jean Peters. This was a movie about the last days of the 'Geronimo War' and was quite accurate and sympathetic toward the Indian cause for the time. Grandpa and Mother sang Apache songs with Steve Allen, Ernie Kovacs, and Dave Garroway." (p. 259)
from the essay Raising the American Indian Community House by Mifaunway Shunatona Hines
"I gained self-confidence to the extent that one day on reading a New York Times story about black women organizing, I was inspired to call Charlotte Curtis, the Times special sections editor. She created history for us by appointing reporter Judy Klemesrud to do a story complete with head shots, which became the first New York Times story about New York City American Indian women. It was September 18, 1968, and this article was the springboard we needed. The overall story was about our efforts to promote the new 'Indianness' to combat the emerging 'Indian is in' fashion madness. " (p. 284)
"Meantime, the headlines continued, only now the inclusion of New York City Indian presence became almost routine. In 1971 New York Times stories covered the Puyallup fish-ins in Washington, the New York State Senate's bill to return wampum belts to the Iroquois, and similar, ..." (p. 281)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)