Interesting Film


While looking over TCM's March listing, I was intrigued by this film's description. It was an interesting film, all right. But I wouldn't single out the white race as evil.
Reading what the Bible has to say about human nature, I know that there are no "noble" races; all of mankind sins. The white race has sinned horribly against native peoples, but native peoples have plenty of their own sins and are not (as they are often portrayed) these pure, angelic, noble figures. I'm part native American, and they were no angels. The tortures many of the tribes practiced are beyond wicked. If the natives had owned equal weaponry, they would have been just as cruel to the white man as the white man was to them. Not to excuse any cruelty on anyone's part - but unfortunately, it's human nature.
And as to spreading illness - that is certainly not intentional. If a foreigner was to bring in the USA an illness that made me sick, I wouldn't be happy - but I wouldn't view it as a deliberately evil act on their part!

reply

[deleted]

Good points. Pacific native cultures included cannibalism, incest, rigid caste systems, and torture. For example, in Hawaii an ordinary person who stepped on the shadow of a chief could be executed. Whitey stopped these horrors, and replaced them with others. Anyway, the noble savage myth, dating back to Rousseau, lives on.

reply