Cast: Richard Dix, Lois Wilson, Noah Beery
Welcome to another Silent Sunday at The Psycho Ward! This week's silent is a historical drama based on Zane Grey's 1925 novel of the same name.
PLOT: Typical movie about Native Americans (no, we do not call them Indians anymore. Sorry!). It begins with the clans known as "Basket Weavers" and then the cliff dwellers, which we know to be the Anasazi. It then shows the Spanish conquest of the natives in 1540 and the introduction of horses. Next, it fast-forwards three hundred years and shows Kit Carson's betrayal of the Native Americans to the US Army. Fast-forwarding to World War I, the Native Americans become soldiers in the war against Germany.
The film basically centers around Nophaie, the Warrior (Richard Dix. In the beginning of the film we learn that Nophaie is a title given to the strongest man in the tribe), and his fight to gain freedom for his people. He has helpers along the way too; a schoolteacher named Marian Warner (Lois Wilson), and Bart Wilson (Bert Woodruff) who at the end of the film becomes the new agent. Booker (Noah Beery) is the stereotypical white man against the Native American civilization.
THE REVIEW: The big difference between this film and D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation is that while both films are made from an American perspective, The Vanishing American favors the underdog, in this case, the Native Americans. In the beginning, I was a bit worried because they were being portrayed as savages, helpless against the Spanish conquest, but then the cue cards came up describing the whites as "monsters," and while that was appalling, it was very thoughtful and wise of director George Seitz to acknowledge how the Native Americans felt about their white attackers. And I am a history kinda person, so I enjoyed this film. 4 out of 5 stars.
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