On M List of Movie Reviews

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A Man Called Horse (1970)

Rate: 4
Viewed: 2/20

2/20: Despite the dialogue that's roughly 80% Sioux, A Man Called Horse is the whitest portrayal of the American Indian culture I've ever seen, hence increasing my appreciation for Dances With Wolves.

In fact, most of the important characters are Indianfaced. Buffalo Cow Hand? That's Judith Anderson, a white actress from Australia. Running Deer? She's Corinna Tsopei, the Miss Universe winner of 1964 from Greece. Yellow Hand? He's played by Manu Tupou whose origins lie in Fiji. As Longfoot, Michael Baseleon was born to Greek parents.

Therefore, how can A Man Called Horse claim to be an authentic picture about American Indians when it's not so? What a surprise that the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of Rosebud, South Dakota, was okay with being in the background and acting like retards. There must have been a big payoff for them. Well, either way, I hope selling their souls was worth it.

Back then, the Shoshone tribe was too far away to attack the Lakota tribe. In fact, they lived literally hundreds of miles from each other. The latter's true enemy was the Crow tribe. Stories of white people who were kidnapped by the Indians are true, but here's the thing: after experiencing their culture, pretty much all of the kidnapped decided to stay on. Slavery didn't exist in the Lakota tribe.

As for Richard Harris, who's the sole reason why I picked up the film, he's mostly okay. Of course, his character is a white man who thinks he can become a better native than the natives! By far, the most dramatic scene is when he made a vow to the sun by having his chest brutally bear-clawed and hung in the air for a while by a couple of ropes. When I think about it, the act seems so pointless. The recovery must have taken months.

All in all, the premise of A Man Called Horse did interest me at first, but it turns out to be a major disappointment.

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