The story is a switch of The Searchers,
with an Indian girl raised by a white family. But instead of showing all that
up front and having the drama play out, this one holds off the reveal that
Audrey Hepburn is an Indian until around half way through and everyone starts
wailing and carrying on as if it’s 1941 Germany and she’s a Jew.
And instead of The Searchers' heavily
multi-cultural world with its mixture of Swedes, Confederates, Indians, half-Indians
and Anglos, this depicts a world where apparently the worst shame is to be
Indian. When its revealed that Audrey has red blood the townsfolk get whipped
up into a hysterical fury, her own brother Murphy rants and raves like she’s an
alien. I get that people were racist along the frontier, I’m sure they were,
but this didn’t ring true – that people would be so shocked at this time in
American history that an adopted girl was Kiowa, that they would shun and carry
on so much about a girl they’ve known their entire lives. It all ran false. The
Elvis movie Flaming Star dealt with this material so, so much better.
None of the characters are that likeable or
interesting – Burt Lancaster’s patriarch, harbouring incestuous feelings for
his sister Hepburn (it’s okay apparently because they’re not blood relatives…
sorry, but it was a little too close to Scarface for me) and ordering an Indian
who wants to parley to be shot dead; Audie Murphy’s racist brother (never given
a really good reason for his hysteria inducing reaction to Indians except they
killed his paw – incidentally he’s meant to be a goodie who comes to the rescue at the
end); Doug McClure’s bland younger brother
(no character at all and one wonders why he’s in the film), Lilian
Gish’s pop-eyed mother (though the bit where she causes Joseph Wiseman to be
hung is one of the best in the movie).
Audrey Hepburn is pretty and likeable as
always but she’s not that convincing as an Indian, looks too old, and is stuck with a
nothing part – entirely passive (she seems bullied into staying with the whites
more than anything else, there’s never a moment where she explores her Indian
heritage). At the end of the movie you feel sorry for her more than anything
else, stuck in this semi-abusive relationship with her brother. There’s some
hammy acting, too.
Also for a movie that is supposed to shed
light on American racism, it’s racist in its depiction of the Indians – who are
once again mostly depicted as savages in the distance with only a few lines of
dialogue. They whoop whoop and fire arrows and charge on a building – but they are never allowed to show
humanity, or humour. John Saxon has the biggest part, as a white allied
Indian, but it’s not much of a role.
The central idea of an Indian raised by a
while family is a good one and there are some effective moments: I always like
Charles Bickford in Westerns, Dimitri Tomkin’s score is interesting, the final
siege isn’t bad, and Joseph Wiseman is fun as a crazed white settler. Audie
Murphy does some effective hysteria acting – it’s not his fault his character
doesn’t really make sense (why didn’t they give him more of an Indian fighting
backstory? Make allowances for his age? Why make him a hero at the end?) But it
doesn’t ring true and it just plain annoyed me.
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