Raised By Indians: Last of the Mohicans

The article "Raised By Indians", by Keith Phipps, accurately describes why the film worked and was a success, and where improper filmmaking methods could have sunk the movie.  He explains that research and liberties taken from source material have established "Last of the Mohicans" as a film that is both believable and enthralling.  He adds that, obviously so, the performance of Daniel Day-Lewis made the movie what it was: a respectful portrayal of Native American life.  Daniel's performance gives the Hawkeye character a perfect human sensibility, a blend of the "best" of two very different cultures.  He guides us through the film, helping us to make sense between the violence.  With Natives killing Natives, white people killing other whites, and both cultures clashing at the same time, it is a godsend to have a character like Hawkeye.  He helps us understand where our allegiances as a viewer should be placed within the film, as with all of the violence, it is otherwise unclear.  The internal cultural symbiosis of Hawkeye helps us to make sense of the bloody story.

This brief scene from Ford's "The Searchers" gives us more insight into the white-man-turned-native character.  In this instance, we have a female who was forcefully taken from her culture and thrown into marriage with a Comanche leader.  As with Hawkeye, she is loyal to "her people" and will not leave them at any costs.  In Debbie's case, this is rather shocking considering the way that she has been treated by Scar.  I don't think that John Ford, in a rare misstep, handled this scene properly.  She was cold to her brother's loving concern; at one point she razzes her brother for not coming to rescue her, and here he was in front of her.  After Martin and Ethan's journey, mixed with our knowledge of her savage mistreatment, I was shocked with the way that she responded.  I was expecting a hug and kisses and an immediate ride into the sunset.  I have tried to justify this scene by reasoning with myself that she was brainwashed, in a sense, but it does not seem like an accurate representation.  More precisely, it is a rare Ford substitution of drama for realism.

I have just finished reading "The Amalgamation Polka", the fourth and final book, to date, written by Stephen Wright (not the comedian, guys).  The novel concerns Liberty Fish, the son of two abolitionists living in New York, and follows him through his young life, into his time as a Union soldier, and his eventual desertion to visit his estranged grandparents, who own a plantation in Carolina.  The book is very much like Wright's other works, surreal, sublime, and expository road novels with a great deal of attention to feelings and truths, rather than to plot.  As with all of his other works, Wright has included here another overwhelmingly long chapter that pays homage to Conrad's "Heart of Darkness".  While I am very desensitized to Wright's signature homage to this process of "going native", this one seemed so fresh and full of characterization.  I do not want to give too many details, as it is such a rewarding passage to read, if you can make it through.  I can say that Wright's novels usually end up saying something grand, in a sublime manner, concerning the meaning of life.  And with this novel, for the first time, I have wholly understood his literary intentions.