Reel Injun Film Analysis

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"Reel Injun" by Neil Diamond The portrayal of North American Natives through a century of cinema had evolved further from their real image. It was said that, the cinema was started to film the Indians. They were characterized as “spiritual, noble, and free”. In the Silent Era, they were given a chance to act and direct movies. They're the stars of the shows. It depicts family, unity, brotherhood and only brutal when necessary. But then, as time goes by, their portrayal changed. The Indians were branded as savages. "Stagecoach" was the movie that started it all, it made them look vicious and bad. Then, colonialism started. They were reduced from groups of natives, with different identities and cultures, to just Indians. They were now viewed

Jindabyne Film Analysis Essay
2088 Words | 5 Pages
The film Jindabyne, is a story about death, marriage, and race in an Australian town in New South Wales called Jindabyne. In the film, four men go fishing, and one of them discovers the dead body of a young indigenous girl. Instead of reporting what they found to the police immediately, they decide to stay and continue fishing. They decide that there is nothing they could do for her, so they tie her legs to a tree and continue with their fishing, reporting the death only when they return home. After they are done with their weekend of fishing and report the incident, conflict starts, as the men are criticized for not respecting the dead. Through the story of the town’s reaction to the four fishermen’s response to the dead girl, the movie shows Australia to be fragmented and divided over white-indigenous relations.
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The White Man's Indian Summary
1505 Words | 4 Pages
In The White Man’s Indian, Robert Berkhoffer analyzes how Native Americans have maintained a negative stereotype because of Whites. As a matter of fact, this book examines the evolution of Native Americans throughout American history by explaining the origin of the Indian stereotype, the change from religious justification to scientific racism to a modern anthropological viewpoint of Native Americans, the White portrayal of Native Americans through art, and the policies enacted to keep Native Americans as Whites perceive them to be. In the hope that Native Americans will be able to overcome how Whites have portrayed them, Berkhoffer is presenting
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The 60's Movie Analysis
1958 Words | 4 Pages
The entire movie is littered with anxiety. The movie makes you anxious as to what may happen next. This primary example is the scene where Skeeter ask Aibileen to tell her personal stories for the book Skeeter is writing. This rose a very serious anxiety in both women. Skeeter also found other maids to also share their personal stories. This scenario caused extreme anxiety because in that day and time if you were to publish or talk about what the maids have to endure, you could be prosecuted or maybe even killed.
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Reel Injun Film Analysis
982 Words | 2 Pages
They brought real Natives to play the Natives on the big screen and eventually movies were created by Natives themselves. Around the same time was the Hippie movement; many people wanted to be like the Natives they saw in the films even though it was not an accurate depiction of the Natives. They liked the 'positive stereotypes' of the Natives in the movies, the family unity and their strength as warriors. In the 1960's the American Indian Movement (AIM) also began and in 1973 The genocide at Wounded Knee occurred. Jim Jarmusch says “That is a genocide that occurred and the [American] culture wanted to perpetrate the idea that [the natives] these people are now mythological, you know, they don’t even really exist, they’re like dinosaurs.” This shows just how much Americans wanted to belittle the Natives, and despite succeeding for a number of years, the New Age of Cinema commenced and movies like Smoke Signals began what some would look at as a Renaissance. The Renaissance explained in Reel Injun discusses the rebirth of the Native American in the Hollywood films, and how the negative stereotypes went away with time. Reel Injun also makes a point to explain how it impacted not only the films but Americans who watched them, and ultimately America as a
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In the White Man's Image and The Real American
608 Words | 2 Pages
The film, “In the White Man’s Image” and Sally Jenkins’ narrative, “The Real All Americans” both discussed the controversial issues and historical significance of nineteenth century social policies dealing with cultural integration of Native Americans, yet while “In the White Man’s Image” covered the broad consequences of such policies, it was Jenkins’ narrow focus on the daily lives of students involved that was able to fully convey the complexities of this devastating social policy. Jenkins’ recreated the experiences of students at the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, bringing the reader along with her as students were stripped of culture, language, and family to be remade into a crude imitation of white society. “...Now, after having had my hair cut, a new thought came into my head. I felt I was no more Indian…” (Jenkins, pg 75). Richard Henry Pratt, the creator of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School that became the inspiration and model for many similar institutions across the nation, intended to save a people from complete destruction, yet the unforeseen consequences of his ...
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Analysis Of Thomas King's 'The Inconvenient Indian'
918 Words | 2 Pages
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were
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Jeremiah Johnson
509 Words | 2 Pages
The movie starts by showing the Indians as “bad” when Johnson finds a note of another mountain man who has “savagely” been killed by the Indians. This view changes as the movie points out tribes instead of Indians as just one group. Some of the tribes are shown dangerous and not to be messed with while others are friendly, still each tribe treats Johnson as “outsider.” Indians are not portrayed as greater than “...
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Stagecoach
1190 Words | 3 Pages
In 1939 John Ford masterminded a classical western film by the name of Stagecoach. This film has the integrity of a fine work of art. Being that it could be considered a work of art, the impression left on a viewing audience could differ relying on the audience's demographics. However, it is conceivable to all audiences that Ford delivers a cast of characters that are built on stereotypes and perceptions conjured from 'B' westerns that preceded this film's time. Each character is introduced to the audience in a stereotypical genre, as the film progresses, these stereotypes are broken down and the characters become more humanized. This is apparent with a handful of characters being portrayed better than others. One can investigate each individual character to correlate such a pattern. The characters are, in no particular order: Curly, Hatfield, Gatewood, Peacock, the stagecoach driver, Dallas, Lady Mallory, and of course Ringo.
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The Flick Film Analysis
900 Words | 2 Pages
Sex, love, depression, guilt, trust, all are topics presented in this remarkably well written and performed drama. The Flick, a 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning drama by Annie Baker, serves to provide a social commentary which will leave the audience deep in thought well after the curtain closes. Emporia State Universities Production of this masterpiece was a masterpiece in itself, from the stunningly genuine portrayal of the characters of Avery and Rose, to the realism found within the set, every aspect of the production was superb.
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Film Analysis Of La Jetée, By Chris Marke
1428 Words | 3 Pages
La Jetée takes place in a post-world wasteland, set in a dystopian future, which follows the story of an unnamed hero who is sent back in time in search of a solution to replace the world’s decreasing stocks of food, medicine, and energy. La Jetée in its entirety, can be defined as a philosophical fiction which tackles themes of time, memory, and perception. Considered being more of a photo novel than a film, La Jetée is comprised almost entirely of still images. These black and white images are infused with transitions as well as an active soundtrack, and a narrator telling the story of what the images mean.
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Positive Portrayal of Native Americans in the Film, Dances With Wolves
1845 Words | 4 Pages
...views of these people and what they are expected to be, is taken away as the viewer realizes that the life of the natives is very common and understandable. This film almost goes to prove that often the reason that a certain group is tagged by prejudice views, is because little is known about where they are coming from, how they live or what they are experiencing in life. The film Dances With Wolves does a good job of proving that often our stereotypical views of others are inaccurate, and that the Native Americans of the west were not all that different from the whites that also inhabited the plains.
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Stephen Aron Westward Expansion Summary
1956 Words | 4 Pages
This is because many considered the winning of the West a glorious achievement and a major step forward for American society. Early movies and television shows in the 1940s/50s tended to demonize the Native Americans in order to justify the events of Westward expansionism. However, in recent decades most historians have rejected this perspective and stripped the historical event of its romance, instead going on to unearth the casualties and environmental costs of American expansion, particularly in the case of the Native Americans. For example, historian Stephen Aron focuses on the stripping the American West of its myths on issues such as the people involved and the environment in ‘The American West: A Very Short Introduction’. There were several reasons behind the Indians failure to resist American expansion, most significantly their poor economic standing, weak politics, minor socialisation and declining
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The Myth of the Old West
2022 Words | 5 Pages
All in all, the treatment of the American Indian during the expansion westward was cruel and harsh. Thus, A Century of Dishonor conveys the truth about the frontier more so than the frontier thesis. Additionally, the common beliefs about the old west are founded in lies and deception. The despair that comes with knowing that people will continue to believe in these false ideas is epitomized by Terrell’s statement, “Perhaps nothing will ever penetrate the haze of puerile romance with which writers unfaithful to their profession and to themselves have surrounded the westerner who made a living in the saddle” (Terrell 182).
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The Western Genre: An Analysis of its History and Rise and Fall as a Genre
1412 Words | 3 Pages
Johnson, G. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue06/infocus/western.htm Nichols, B. (2010). Engaging Cinema: An Introduction to Film Studies. (1st ed.). New York,
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Analysis Of James Fenimore Cooper's The Pioneers
579 Words | 2 Pages
One of the many commonalities that James Fenimore Cooper’s The Pioneers have with the 1962 film How the West Was Won is its emphasis on the frontier settlement. While both are descriptive of the frontier settlement, the plot of How the West Was Won is focused more on the settlers’ lifestyles than The Pioneers. An example of this is the fourth segment of the film titled The Railroad, whose overall theme focuses on the effects the westward expansion has on the environment. In this case, the Arapaho Indians oppose the presence of new settlers via the railroad because of their desire to hunt the buffalo herd. This theme becomes apparent in the mise en scene of the aftermath of the Arapahos’ retaliation attack on the nearby town. The main shot has
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Reel Injun Film Analysis

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