MovieChat Forums > Hostiles (2018) Discussion > Modern movies about Native Americans see...

Modern movies about Native Americans seem hollow and unrealistic.

posted 4 years ago by whynotwriteme (7119)
11 replies | jump to latest

Native culture in movies up to the late 60s was Hollywood fantasy based on dime novels, but today, it seems Hollywood ignores much of Native culture in an attempt to prove "They are just like us!" Sure, they use real Native actors, but it's like watching modern white people with long hair who happen to live in teepees. There is no attempt to portray real Native culture, as it would probably seem too "alien" to modern audiences and distance them from the characters.

The era that got it right was from the early 70s to the early 90s. Movies like Little Big Man, A Man Called Horse (which blended the cultures of several tribes, but still captured the feel of Native culture) Jeremiah Johnson, Ulzana's Raid, and to a lesser extent, Dances With Wolves made an attempt to portray Native culture as very different from our own. Even by the time of Dances With Wolves this difference was being watered down and Natives were being made more "white" acting to please modern audiences.

Hostiles is like a blend of the old fashioned 50s westerns in the protrayal of the savage, violent Comanches, and the modern "We are all the same" portrayal of the Cheyennes. The Cheyennes came across as modern New Agers rather than real Native Americans of the 19th century.

[–] Artisan (3464) 4 years ago

The Indians, particularly the Comanche were brutal, you never see how brutal in films because it would be like a Saw movie and these people are meant to be seen as the salt of the Earth.

[–] whynotwriteme (7119) 4 years ago

Oh yeah, I know all about the Comanche. Throwing white babies into cactus patches or dragging them to death behind their horses, gang-raping kidnapped pre-teen Mexican girls and discarding them in the wasteland to bleed to death from it... Far worse things, too. Probably one of the most barbaric cultures ever to be seen on Earth. The modern-day image of peace-loving, elf-like nature worshippers is SO far off the truth. If some of the proponents of this view were to travel back in time somehow and actually cross paths with some of the tribes, it would be a horribly rude awakening.

[–] Artisan (3464) 4 years ago

lol they would be able to ponder their errors while the women of the tribe torture them with fire and sharp objects.

Perhaps one day satirical films will be made about the snowflakes, I can see it now, 2020 Snowflake steps through time loop. Winds up in the Wild West.

2020 Snowflake : "Oh look Indians, eerr Native Americans, how wonderful. Much better than some savage brutal white man. They will help me. Hello, Mr Native American!"

*boom* snowflake gets a tomahawk to the head.

Cut to 2020 Snowflake waking up and long drawn out torture scene.

The End.

[–] whynotwriteme (7119) 4 years ago

I'd love to watch that! I've been thinking about writing a story with that theme, but I doubt I could ever sell it. You have to toe the line if you want to sell stories today.

[–] Artisan (3464) 4 years ago

Yeah there is a wealth of stories that can be set around SJW's and their silly ideology but they won't be seen for a while. It's coming though!

I always thought the whole thing about a non politician beating a seasoned politician in the race for Presidency sounded like an old school Capra film. But again not fashionable at the moment.

[–] brux (14666) 3 years ago

So you're against social justice? Do you have the slightest clue what it is, or how you have benefited from it, or are you just another ignorant troll who can't shut up?

[–] legnadibrom (5697) 4 years ago

have you seen Bone Tomahawk?

[–] whynotwriteme (7119) 4 years ago

Yes. It was OK, but kind of slow with unnecessary dialogue, and they copped out by making the hostile tribe some sort of prehistoric cave-men throwbacks.

[–] brux (14666) 3 years ago

> today, it seems Hollywood ignores much of Native culture in an attempt to prove "They are just like us!"

I'd have to reject your premise there. I have not nor I don't think I would ever come to that conclusion about modern ... Westerns.

No one is alive from that era, so all we see is still Hollywood fashioning. I think they are doing better than they have done before. "Hostiles" and "News Of The World" are both very good.

I think you have to realize that the Native American genocide is the original sin of this nation, so to try to evolve a more clear understanding of that is a positive thing.

Native American culture gets a double-whammy. First we portrayed them as brutish ungodly beasts that deserved to have their lands and lives taken from them, and now that movies are being more truthful it somehow offends whites that they have to face the real history. I am white, but I so sick of gutless and dishonest white people who have to continually denigrate non-whites in some while insisting they are not racist.

[–] Wuchak (8081) 2 years ago

There was no “genocide" in what is today the USA. That’s a widespread Leftist fallacy. There were massacres on both sides (more on this below) but, beyond that, all deaths were the result of war. And, in war, people die. It’s a reality of this brutal planet. Death due to disease is a separate topic. AmerIndians were simply conquered and placed on reservations which are, in essence, their own nations.

In the 300 years of the Indian Wars from the early 1600s to the early 1900s there were 30,000 deaths of AmerIndians. Compare that to the 4-year Civil War where 618,222 soldiers perished. There's simply no comparison and it helps put things in perspective.

AmerIndian survivors should be thankful that their conquerors respectfully didn’t annihilate them -- which is what genocide actually means -- but rather blessed them with much land to live on with generous assistance to this day. Currently, there are 326 Reservations consisting of 87,800 square miles of land, which is roughly equal to the combined areas of Ohio & Pennsylvania. There are 24 million people now living in these two states whereas the current population of AmerIndians is 2.9 million living in the same land space. In other words, AmerIndians already have more than enough land to live on and enjoy as their own nations within a nation. Furthermore, they're free to leave the Reservation and live wherever they want, as many have done and do.

Speaking as part-Abenaki, AmerIndians aren't actually "indigenous" or "Native American" seeing as how their ancestors emigrated from Asia via Beringia several thousand years ago. AmerIndians are no more native to the Americas than newer Americans who were born in the Western Hemisphere (Caucasians, blacks, etc.). They're just Older Americans.

Getting back to massacres, Leftwingers always cite the Sand Creek Massacre, but the worst massacre was actually committed during the Dakota War of 1862 where Santee Sioux went on the warpath and murdered between 600-800 Euro settlers (settlers, not soldiers), which constituted the largest death toll inflicted upon American civilians by an enemy force until 9/11.

Then there’s The Ward Massacre, The Nez Perce uprising which killed dozens of settlers in Idaho & Wyoming, and the Massacre at Fort Mims. And what about the Cherry Valley massacre of 1778? We never hear from Leftist academics of the countless innocent settlers who were murdered by roaming bands of young "warriors": While a chief was signing a peace treaty on the tribe's behalf they were out robbing, raping and murdering.

[–] Mustang (5196) 2 years ago

They love showing the Native Americans as being pure of heart and just honest hunter gatherers who would never harm anyone. They fought among themselves and took sides with the Europeans in the hopes of killing off their opposing tribes quicker!

Where the Wokeness really backfires is when they start showing the spiritual side. The Ghost Dancing and other ceremonies. You start to understand why they lost.