These are my notes on Redskin
Quick! Hide the kids! It's the catholics! I couldn't imagine having to hide my children from a group of people who took over my land and were no demanding my offspring. History definetly repeats itself when we don't learn from it. If we keep fresh in our minds the devastation we've caused to other cultures in our attempts to conform them to "Western Standards" we find ourselves acting against our better judgement today in places like Iraq.
Heh political plug.. Excuse me.
The transition from color to shades of grey in a yellow hue must have been intentional. I didn't know that it was so popular.
This boarding school is such a soft reflection of what they were probably like. This seems more like baby boomer boarding school then an institution reflecting military standards. Are we trying to promote the idea that standardized de-culturization was ok here?
Oh good he grows up to be Mr. Smith goes to Washington. I just saw an american flag transition. He the Anglo-Indian success story. I really hope I'm just being built up on a high note before things start to turn downward.
Man aristocratic parties look like a blast though. Jesus right up until the all out mockery with the indian dance. Then feeling threatened all the white people oust him immediately. I talked about this yesterday, we're so primitive in groups.
One of the truest things I've seen in this movie is how unconscious the white people are of their racism. White characters today are either super conscious of race or cross lines for comedic value. I don't feel like we show the subversive racism of white people.
There's also an race lines between the Navajo and Pueblo indians. These characters seem, to my limited knowledge about the time and the people on both sides of the cultural divide, to be accurate. I guess it's because this movie was current when it was released and most everything else I've seen about the time period was loaded with anachronisms.
On a side note: I'm trying to get a belt I made from a collegiate trophy. That's money!
Ahh geeze our main character comes home and denounces the weight his white appearance and schooling on his sense of identity and then is asked to dress up for his father to show he is still Pueblo. That must have been one of the longest sighs in the movie thus far. The forced costume does add a layer of complexity to the scene where he rejects the position of medicine man though.
There's inaccuracy in the portrayal of the Pueblo people. They wouldn't have refused agricultural technique of white settlers so much. Many groups of Pueblo people had advanced forms of farming before white settlers arrived and many worked for whites on farms well before 1920. Do-Adtin proposal to teach them what he had learned from whites wouldn't have been out of place at all. In fact since the 1800's there had been a mass blending of indigenous and christian religion, comprised of native tradition and both books of the bible.
I suppose the scene wouldn't have been as dynamic as it was with all historical accuracy.
Overall this movie is dramatically captivating. Players say the kindest things before they say the most hurtful, or the worst thing happens to the characters before grace is revealed. It makes the impact great and it attaches the viewer to the characters. Seeing them at their best and worst, when they crack from stress, sink into self conflict or feel relief from burden develops the character for the audience and that keeps us interested.
I think a large amount of movies don't play to the broader range of human emotion that these films do. There's "Feel good" or "Pure Horror" or depressing pictures that drone on, usually on one tone throughout the whole movie. What I'm saying is that I'll often feel only one thing as I watch movies where as RedSkin actually does manipulate my feelings like that "Roller coaster ride" cliche that I see so often in the review.
On another hand, there are many movies that swing me right round, but it's in a forced way. Scenes in dramatic movies may be so strong that I'm either repulsed by the intensity or wrapped in a blanket crying for three days.
"Players say the kindest things before they say the most hurtful, or the worst thing happens to the characters before grace is revealed."
ReplyDeleteThat's a really good point. I've never really thought about it that way. See the thing is, there's no great story without struggle and there's no struggle without pain. So in the world of storytelling, pain is good, pain is profitable.
Also, what you said about Redskin being a roller coaster ride, i think "roller coaster ride" summed it up pretty well to be honest, and here's why. On a roller coaster ride, you usually could see what's coming, you anxiously anticipate it but at the same time, you're too caught up in the now that you almost forget what's coming. so when it comes, you're almost kinda surprised. That is the same feeling i had about Redskin. I knew eventually Wing Foot had to somehow find a way to have his people and Corn Blossom's people come to peace with each other because they had to end up together for the happy ending. And he did, he found a way.
-RMBAS VSN
I agree. Also, that's a good point about the flag transition.
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