Red Man's View film to be a revelation in history and to the plight of Native Americans.
Thomas R. Bond II will produce and direct the drama, who is slated to star Michael Spears (Into the West), Eddie Spears (Black Cloud, Comanche Moon), Nathan Lee Chasing Horse (Dances with Wolves, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee), Elaine Miles (Northern Exposure, Smoke Signals) and Billy Drago (The Untouchables, Charmed).
The film is set in 1864 during the end of the Civil War in the northwestern territories of California. The story of a tribe that is a branch of the Shoshone. For thousands of years they inhabited a peaceful and beautiful immense valley with huge trees and giant waterfalls. The tribe consists of a the elder Chief, the leader of the Shoshone branch tribe, his son Silver Eagle, and his son's betrothed Minewanna, the most beautiful female of the entire tribe. During the (Native American) "Indian" relocation period, Union squatters and the Union government are taking away all of the tribal lands. This tribe is eventually displaced from their peaceful valley by US Union soldiers, and their native land taken from them. They move on to another area, but again are displaced and forced to move again by the soldiers and squatters. But among the white men, there is a stranger who is not part of the squatters, and this is when the day of reckoning comes.
Bond states: "We are very excited and honored to do a film this true to form and intense about the plight of Native Americans. It is long overdue." The last drama of this genre that was produced was the classic "Dances with Wolves" over 20 years ago.
And "the last drama of this genre" was Dances with Wolves? Which genre is that...historical dramas about Indians? Dances with Wolves is the last one if you exclude Squanto, Pocahontas, Geronimo: An American Tale, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Hidalgo, Dreamkeeper, Into the West, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, Comanche Moon, and several others.
But this may be the first historical drama about California's Indians since the stories of Ramona, Zorro, Ishi, and Willie Boy. I can't think of a movie that's told a tribal story about California's Indians from a tribal perspective. In that regard, this movie may be a first.
For more on the subject, see The Best Indian Movies.
4 comments:
Say WHATTTTT???? I can't even begin to tell you what all is historically inaccurate with this whole idea. What a way to start a morning!!
OK, let's get a few facts straight:
1-Shoshone tribes are NOT from Northwestern California--they are found east of the Sierras in the Great Basin region of the U.S. They are of the Uto-Aztecan language family.
2-The tribes that ARE in the Northwestern California area are mostly Penutian tribes--it's a whole different language family.
3-I don't recall any Union soldiers way up in the northwestern part of the state. There was a battalion stationed at Benecia [east San Francisco Bay]. However, their commander was a Confederate sympathizer and soon left for the war.
There were some skirmishes, mainly by bandits sending money back to the South.
There are NO incidents of ANY Union soldiers seizing lands in Northwestern California during the Civil War--in fact, there was little contact between Northwestern California tribes and non-Indians with the exception of the Russian fur trade until the late 1800s, when the Oregon Trail opened that area up to settlement.
This movie is totally bogus and if Rob were to be so kind as to give me the contact information for these filmmakers, I will certainly relay this information to them and strongly urge them to make the REAL California Indian story!!!!!
Rob, you're a peach to clue me in.
OK, just to let everybody know--I AM one of those California Indians whose story is about to get totally botched up. I found their number and called them and only got a voice mail. I'll let you all know how it comes out.
IF they're gonna make something about us, it should be correct!!! Aargh. Now I won't get anything done all morning thinking about it.
Good points, Deb. For my thoughts on the subject, see Outrage Over Red Man's View Remake.
I am Frank Marks from Biograph Company. This is in answer to any "Outrage" over our remake of the film "Red Man's View" a story of the native American plight in the mid 1800s. On the press release, there was a typo of "Northwestern territories of California" which should have read "Northwestern territories and California" so we do aplologize fro that typo. Now, to begin I will state on a personal note that my brother in law and nep[hew IS Shoshone and the Shoshone tribe consisted of three large divisions, the Northern, the Western and the Eastern.I want to make things very clear on this, though everyone has thier own opinions, however pre-mature. First, this is a respectful and "Non" sterotypcial accounting of the Native American people. This film is in development and has not even out of its embryonic stages, yet there is a comment of "This film is historically inaccurate and extremely stereotypical..." The film has not been made yet. Second, we do not want to get into a debate on inaccurracies. Historical facts are, there were "Union" soldiers in the west, (Referred to as "Union" soldiers) there were even Civil War skirmishes between Union and Confederate forces in California, and that "Union" soldiers along with other white settlers did persecute the Native Americans and drove them off thier land in "Northwestern" territories". Lastly, on the other comments, there is no "Gimmick" since the original "Red Man's View (1909)" was not Biograph's "First" film, and just for accuracy, the last film Biograph (NYC) made was in 1918. We also as an independent film company do and will make more than just concerted efforts to bring a stronger "Native American" presence to the screen. Also, as of now there were no phone calls received, but we would be happy to receive any comments or questions regarding the film by e-mailing us thru our website.
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