Do you believe the Native Americans to be savages?

What fool tagged this history? They must have misspelled fantasy.

If you read the novel, at the end, Jack Crabbe condemns them all as filthy savages.

Thomas Jefferson called them savages and Jefferson is who most Americans respect so why can he call them savage but old American westerns can't then?

you know that Jefferson kept his black children a secret, right...?

Yeah but why so many Americans still respect him so?

The situation was certainly irretrievable by that point, but the question is did it have to have gone that way? It is a debatable point, and I do wish that we could get some clarity on this point however mass weeping over what happened to the indians always seems to close minds and the debate down...

you tell me.

you're the preacher here...

Because he deserves it....he did not live in the year 2011, you can not expect him to have lived by the morals of 2011.....to do so is grossly unfair towards him.

Professors, plural?

Or the one for whom you're writing your assignment, and would think DWW was an amazing movie if he/she had been part of making it?


I feel a story coming on.
I had a professor in college who called himself native american because he had a great great grandfather who was 1/8 indian or something.

He was always saying **** about "my people"
Once he said "when my people were being killed by your people.....(forget the rest, but it was addressed to the entire class)

At breaktime I told him "When 'YOUR' people were being killed 'MY' people didn't even know 'Your' people existed.

this is why I refuse to have people...

But by that reasoning Malcolm X could be considered respected because he can't be expected to live by 2011 morals? But many Americans of today described him as fanatical black militant.

Always thought he said that to protect 'the human beings' from further degradation through hippie envy.

"Was a hundred and eleven years ago when I as only thirteen"----now get out of here.

Rap

Shouldn't a modern day person of Native American descent be asked the question that started this thread? Asking a bunch of Americans of European descent, considering we were socialized in a culture that for decades made Anglo-Americans the hero of every film or story, is sort of silly, in my opinion.

And only black people can talk about blacks, only women can talk about women, only muslims can talk about muslims and so on and so on.....that should make for a lot of peace and quiet!

I haven't seen the movie, so there is a possibility I'd either love it or hate it. However, I don't go to Hollywood for accurate portrayals of history. There are good history books, there are poor history books, but the difference is... they generally weren't written for the ratings and they are usually chock full of dry information, dates and all kind of stuff that would be boring up on the silver screen. The movies are about stories, fiction not truth, what sells or will make a profit.
It's often said history goes to the victor. They can write or rewrite history to suit their purposes. If Benjamin Franklin though less of certain people then, it doesn't stand to reason he'd think the same way now. He was a product of his times, a well educated, fascinating man. A man with a head full of brilliant ideas, but not every thought is a great one, not even between the ears of a genius.
If this movie was so great, why hasn't it been remade? Not that it's the true test of a great movie, but 1939? Come on! Hollywood can't resist the opportunity to recycle an idea. If this one was compelling it would have been re-spun. The reason is, because, you can't make that kind of blatantly racist movie anymore. We've evolved, or at least most of have and speaking for most of us, I don't want to watch or give any of my time to that kind of message. But back in the day, the audience believed that crap and would pay to watch it. Not anymore..

John Wayne was a native American: he was born in Iowa.





David

Why can Stagecoach and The Searchers be dismissed as bad movie when many film professors and film buffs will always say to watch that for good understanding of that era and one of the best western movies ever made, are all those film buff's just disliking the Native Americans or maybe they don't care that Native Americans are portrayed barbarically just as long as film is directed well??

Nobody is dismissing them as bad movies, for Pete's sake. They're excellent movies. But they don't necessarily reflect historical truths. You don't watch a commercially made movie to learn history. You watch it for entertainment and for its artistic and aesthetic values. I think you're a little confused about the distinction between fact and fiction, mt774.

At this point, thanks to the Native American Ministry of Propaganda, you might just as well use the movies as to use any politically approved sources. Neither one deals in historical fact.

That's true but "politically approved" sources are horseshit by definition.