Movies, which changed image of injun
by Krakys23 | created - 14 Nov 2016 | updated - 14 Nov 2016 | PublicFilms referenced in "Reel Injun" documentary.
Films, didn't include in the list, but which also changed injun image:
Various cartoons
Various movies about Crazy Horse.
Thomas Edison Silent films Late 1880s Lakota Pueblo images
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1. Smoke Signals (1998)
PG-13 | 89 min | Comedy, Drama
Arnold rescued Thomas from a fire when he was a child. Thomas thinks of Arnold as a hero, while Arnold's son Victor resents his father's alcoholism, violence and abandonment of his family.
Director: Chris Eyre | Stars: Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Irene Bedard, Gary Farmer
Votes: 12,608 | Gross: $6.72M
2. Powwow Highway (1988)
R | 91 min | Adventure, Drama
Two Northern Cheyenne men take a road trip from Montana to New Mexico to bail out the sister of one of them who has been framed and arrested in Santa Fe. On the way, they begin to reconnect to their spiritual heritage.
Director: Jonathan Wacks | Stars: Gary Farmer, A Martinez, Joanelle Romero, Amanda Wyss
Votes: 1,903 | Gross: $0.28M
3. Into the West (2005)
TV-14 | 92 min | Adventure, Drama, Romance
Tales from the American West in the 19th century, told from the perspective of two families, one of white settlers and one of Native Americans.
Stars: Joseph M. Marshall, Irene Bedard, Gil Birmingham, John Terry
Votes: 7,557
4. The Iron Horse (1924)
Passed | 150 min | Drama, History, Romance
After witnessing the murder of his father by a renegade as a boy, the grown-up Brandon helps to realize his father's dream of a transcontinental railway.
Director: John Ford | Stars: George O'Brien, Madge Bellamy, Charles Edward Bull, Cyril Chadwick
Votes: 2,446 | Gross: $2.06M
5. The Silent Enemy (1930)
Not Rated | 84 min | Drama
A documentary about the life of Indians in Northern Canada.
Director: H.P. Carver | Stars: Chief Yellow Robe, Chief Buffalo Child Long Lance, Chief Akawanush, Mary Alice Nelson Archambaud
Votes: 271
6. Dance Me Outside (1994)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Drama
A story of life on a First Nations reserve in Ontario: Silas and Frank are trying to get into college to train to be mechanics but they find themselves having to deal with girls, family - and murder.
Director: Bruce McDonald | Stars: Ryan Rajendra Black, Adam Beach, Jennifer Podemski, Michael Greyeyes
Votes: 1,334 | Gross: $0.30M
7. The Plainsman (1936)
Passed | 113 min | Drama, Western
Wild Bill Hickok and Buffalo Bill Cody attempt to stop an Indian uprising that was started by white gun-runners.
Director: Cecil B. DeMille | Stars: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, James Ellison, Charles Bickford
Votes: 2,430
8. Stagecoach (1939)
Passed | 96 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo and learn something about each other in the process.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Claire Trevor, Andy Devine, John Carradine
Votes: 53,789
Iconic film; others to follow molded after this one. Portrayed negative image. Director John Ford one of the most damaging movies in history. Those who are backward, who are stopping progress. It gave the opinion about natives for decades.
9. Captain John Smith and Pocahontas (1953)
Approved | 75 min | Drama, History, Romance
Captain John Smith overcomes the treachery of some of his men and resentment of the local Native Americans to establish the colony of Jamestown.
Director: Lew Landers | Stars: Anthony Dexter, Jody Lawrance, Alan Hale Jr., Robert Clarke
Votes: 191
10. Pocahontas (I) (1995)
G | 81 min | Animation, Adventure, Drama
An English soldier and the daughter of an Algonquin chief share a romance when English colonists invade seventeenth century Virginia.
Directors: Mike Gabriel, Eric Goldberg | Stars: Mel Gibson, Linda Hunt, Christian Bale, Joe Baker
Votes: 203,105 | Gross: $141.60M
Disney movie portraying her as “sexy”
11. Go West (1940)
Passed | 80 min | Comedy, Musical, Western
The Marx Brothers come to the rescue in the Wild West when a young man, trying to settle an old family feud so he can marry the girl he loves, runs afoul of crooks.
Director: Edward Buzzell | Stars: Groucho Marx, Chico Marx, Harpo Marx, John Carroll
Votes: 5,829
12. The Searchers (1956)
Passed | 119 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
An American Civil War veteran embarks on a years-long journey to rescue his niece from the Comanches after the rest of his brother's family is massacred in a raid on their Texas farm.
Director: John Ford | Stars: John Wayne, Jeffrey Hunter, Vera Miles, Ward Bond
Votes: 96,339
John Wayne
13. A Distant Trumpet (1964)
Approved | 117 min | Drama, Western
West Point graduate Lt. Hazard is posted to Fort Delivery, Arizona, where he has to deal with lax discipline, romantic complications, Apaches and his conflicting feelings toward the Indians.
Director: Raoul Walsh | Stars: Troy Donahue, Suzanne Pleshette, Diane McBain, James Gregory
Votes: 1,107
14. Little Big Man (1970)
PG-13 | 139 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
Jack Crabb, looking back from extreme old age, tells of his life being raised by Native Americans and fighting with General Custer.
Director: Arthur Penn | Stars: Dustin Hoffman, Faye Dunaway, Chief Dan George, Martin Balsam
Votes: 37,908 | Gross: $31.56M
With Chief Dan George
15. Geronimo (1962)
Approved | 101 min | Action, Biography, Drama
In 1880s Arizona, General Crook and his troops are trying to subdue the last tribe of Apache led by Geronimo.
Director: Arnold Laven | Stars: Chuck Connors, Kamala Devi, Pat Conway, Armando Silvestre
Votes: 1,305
16. Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
PG | 154 min | Drama, History, Western
The Cheyenne, tired of broken U.S. government promises, head for their ancestral lands but a sympathetic cavalry officer is tasked to bring them back to their reservation.
Director: John Ford | Stars: Richard Widmark, Carroll Baker, Karl Malden, Sal Mineo
Votes: 6,453
John Ford.
Also shown in a documentary: How Hollywood stereotyped the Native Americans.
17. Billy Jack (1971)
GP | 114 min | Action, Drama
Ex-Green Beret hapkido expert saves wild horses from being slaughtered for dog food and helps protect a desert "freedom school" for runaway.
Director: Tom Laughlin | Stars: Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, Clark Howat, Victor Izay
Votes: 6,603 | Gross: $98.00M
18. The Born Losers (1967)
PG | 113 min | Action, Drama, Thriller
Billy Jack battles a motorcycle gang in a small California beach town.
Director: Tom Laughlin | Stars: Tom Laughlin, Elizabeth James, Jeremy Slate, William Wellman Jr.
Votes: 2,763 | Gross: $26.54M
19. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
R | 133 min | Drama
In the Fall of 1963, a Korean War veteran and criminal pleads insanity and is admitted to a mental institution, where he rallies up the scared patients against the tyrannical nurse.
Director: Milos Forman | Stars: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco
Votes: 1,072,807 | Gross: $112.00M
With Will Sampson
20. The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976)
PG | 135 min | Drama, Western
Missouri farmer Josey Wales joins a Confederate guerrilla unit and winds up on the run from the Union soldiers who murdered his family.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Chief Dan George, Bill McKinney
Votes: 79,877 | Gross: $31.80M
With Chief Dan George
21. Dances with Wolves (1990)
PG-13 | 181 min | Adventure, Drama, Western
Lieutenant John Dunbar, assigned to a remote western Civil War outpost, finds himself engaging with a neighbouring Sioux settlement, causing him to question his own purpose.
Director: Kevin Costner | Stars: Kevin Costner, Mary McDonnell, Graham Greene, Rodney A. Grant
Votes: 290,795 | Gross: $184.21M
22. Wagons East (1994)
PG-13 | 107 min | Adventure, Comedy, Western
In the 1860s Wild West, a ragged bunch of misfit settlers decides they cannot stand living in their current situation and they hire a grizzled cowboy to take them on a journey back East to their hometowns.
Director: Peter Markle | Stars: John Candy, Joe Bays, Abraham Benrubi, Jill Boyd
Votes: 6,181 | Gross: $4.36M
23. Legends of the Fall (1994)
R | 133 min | Drama, Romance, War
In the early 1900s, three brothers and their father living in the remote wilderness of Montana are affected by betrayal, history, love, nature, and war.
Director: Edward Zwick | Stars: Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins, Aidan Quinn, Julia Ormond
Votes: 183,187 | Gross: $66.64M
24. Black Robe (1991)
R | 101 min | Adventure, Drama, War
In the 17th century, a Jesuit missionary nicknamed Black Robe by the natives and his small party of companions try reaching the Huron tribe in Canada all while facing mistrust, Iroquois warring parties and harsh winter conditions.
Director: Bruce Beresford | Stars: Lothaire Bluteau, Aden Young, Sandrine Holt, August Schellenberg
Votes: 7,667 | Gross: $8.21M
25. Rambo III (1988)
R | 102 min | Action, Adventure, Thriller
Rambo mounts a one-man mission to rescue his friend Colonel Trautman from the clutches of the formidable invading Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
Director: Peter MacDonald | Stars: Sylvester Stallone, Richard Crenna, Marc de Jonge, Kurtwood Smith
Votes: 140,241 | Gross: $53.72M
26. The Last of the Mohicans (1992)
R | 112 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
Three trappers protect the daughters of a British Colonel in the midst of the French and Indian War.
Director: Michael Mann | Stars: Daniel Day-Lewis, Madeleine Stowe, Russell Means, Eric Schweig
Votes: 187,765 | Gross: $75.51M
27. Grey Owl (1999)
PG-13 | 118 min | Biography, Drama, Western
The story of the life and work of the Canadian fur trapper-turned-conservationist who claimed to be an aboriginal North American.
Director: Richard Attenborough | Stars: Pierce Brosnan, Stewart Bick, Vlasta Vrana, Annie Galipeau
Votes: 4,046 | Gross: $0.63M
28. Dead Man (1995)
R | 121 min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy
On the run after murdering a man, accountant William Blake encounters a strange Native American man named Nobody who prepares him for his journey into the spiritual world.
Director: Jim Jarmusch | Stars: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Crispin Glover, Lance Henriksen
Votes: 103,112 | Gross: $1.04M
29. Thunderheart (1992)
R | 119 min | Crime, Mystery, Thriller
A young mixed-blood FBI agent is assigned to work with a cynical veteran investigator on a murder on a poverty-stricken Sioux reservation.
Director: Michael Apted | Stars: Val Kilmer, Sam Shepard, Graham Greene, Fred Ward
Votes: 17,142 | Gross: $22.66M
30. Dance Me Outside (1994)
R | 84 min | Comedy, Drama
A story of life on a First Nations reserve in Ontario: Silas and Frank are trying to get into college to train to be mechanics but they find themselves having to deal with girls, family - and murder.
Director: Bruce McDonald | Stars: Ryan Rajendra Black, Adam Beach, Jennifer Podemski, Michael Greyeyes
Votes: 1,334 | Gross: $0.30M
31. Flags of Our Fathers (2006)
R | 135 min | Action, Adventure, Drama
The life stories of the six men who raised the flag at the Battle of Iwo Jima, a turning point in World War II.
Director: Clint Eastwood | Stars: Ryan Phillippe, Barry Pepper, Joseph Cross, Jesse Bradford
Votes: 129,283 | Gross: $33.60M
Native film written and/or produced by Natives as mentioned at end of film.
32. Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner (2001)
R | 172 min | Drama
The telling of an Inuit legend of an evil spirit causing strife in the community and one warrior's endurance and battle of its menace.
Director: Zacharias Kunuk | Stars: Natar Ungalaaq, Sylvia Ivalu, Peter-Henry Arnatsiaq, Lucy Tulugarjuk
Votes: 6,861 | Gross: $3.79M
Native film written and/or produced by Natives as mentioned at end of film.
33. Whale Rider (2002)
PG-13 | 101 min | Drama, Family
A contemporary story of love, rejection and triumph as a young Maori girl fights to fulfill a destiny her grandfather refuses to recognize.
Director: Niki Caro | Stars: Keisha Castle-Hughes, Rawiri Paratene, Vicky Haughton, Cliff Curtis
Votes: 44,043 | Gross: $20.78M
Native film written and/or produced by Natives as mentioned at end of film.
34. Once Were Warriors (1994)
R | 102 min | Crime, Drama
A family descended from Maori warriors is bedeviled by a violent father and the societal problems of being treated as outcasts.
Director: Lee Tamahori | Stars: Rena Owen, Temuera Morrison, Mamaengaroa Kerr-Bell, Julian Arahanga
Votes: 36,859 | Gross: $2.20M
Native film written and/or produced by Natives as mentioned at end of film.
35. Skins (2002)
R | 84 min | Crime, Drama
An inspirational tale about the relationship between two Sioux brothers living on the Pine Ridge reservation.
Director: Chris Eyre | Stars: Eric Schweig, Graham Greene, Gary Farmer, Noah Watts
Votes: 1,559 | Gross: $0.24M
Native film written and/or produced by Natives as mentioned at end of film.
36. Ten Canoes (2006)
Unrated | 90 min | Adventure, Comedy, Drama
In Australia's Northern Territory, a man tells us a story of his people and his land. It's about an older man, Minygululu, who has three wives and realizes that his younger brother Dayindi may try to steal away the youngest wife.
Directors: Rolf de Heer, Peter Djigirr | Stars: Crusoe Kurddal, Jamie Gulpilil, Richard Birrinbirrin, Peter Minygululu
Votes: 5,111 | Gross: $0.28M
Native film written and/or produced by Natives as mentioned at end of film.
37. Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002)
PG | 94 min | Adventure, Biography, Drama
In 1931, three half-white, half-Aboriginal girls escape after being plucked from their houses to be trained as domestic staff, and set off on a journey across the Outback.
Director: Phillip Noyce | Stars: Everlyn Sampi, Tianna Sansbury, Kenneth Branagh, Laura Monaghan
Votes: 30,265 | Gross: $6.17M
Native film written and/or produced by Natives as mentioned at end of film.
38. Reel Injun (2009)
Not Rated | 85 min | Documentary, Western
The history of the depiction of Native Americans in Hollywood films.
Directors: Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge, Jeremiah Hayes | Stars: Adam Beach, Chris Eyre, Russell Means, John Trudell
Votes: 1,649
Made in Canada.
39. Imagining Indians (1992)
60 min | Documentary, History
This documentary made with an all native American crew by an indigenous Hopi director examines the representation of so called Indians in our films and in other media.
Director: Victor Masayesva Jr. | Stars: Shirley Atene, Karmen Clifford, Marvin Clifford, Avis Little Eagle
Votes: 8
40. Images of Indians: How Hollywood Stereotyped the Native American (2003 TV Movie)
25 min | Documentary, Western
Hollywood's depiction of Native Americans in Western films is traced through interviews and archive footage.
Directors: Chris O'Brien, Jason Witmer | Stars: Nicholas Schatzki, Casey Camp-Horinek, Ward Churchill, Chris Eyre
Votes: 60
41. Pawnee (1957)
Approved | 80 min | Western
Pale Arrow is a white man raised since a boy by the Pawnee Chief. With wagon trains now encroaching on Pawnee land, the Chief sends Pale Arrow to be with the white people. Now known as Paul... See full summary »
Director: George Waggner | Stars: George Montgomery, Bill Williams, Lola Albright, Francis McDonald
Votes: 274
bad image example
42. Arrowhead (1953)
Passed | 105 min | Drama, Romance, Western
Chief of Scouts Ed Bannon works for the US Army at Fort Clark, Texas and he dreams of aiding in bringing peace to the region, despite opposition from both the Army and the Apaches.
Director: Charles Marquis Warren | Stars: Charlton Heston, Jack Palance, Katy Jurado, Brian Keith
Votes: 1,614
bad image example
43. Reprisal! (1956)
Passed | 74 min | Western
Half-breed Frank Madden claims he's White, in order to own land, but violent racial clashes in town force him to abandon his neutrality and chose a side.
Director: George Sherman | Stars: Guy Madison, Felicia Farr, Kathryn Grant, Michael Pate
Votes: 508
bad image example
44. The Great Sioux Massacre (1965)
Approved | 91 min | Action, Biography, Drama
A somewhat different take on Custer's motivation that changed him from a defender of Native-American rights into a politically-driven, headline-seeker chastiser of the Sioux during the 1870s.
Director: Sidney Salkow | Stars: Joseph Cotten, Darren McGavin, Philip Carey, Julie Sommars
Votes: 709
bad image example
45. Tomahawk Trail (1957)
Approved | 60 min | Western
An incompetent cavalry lieutenant leads his patrol into an Apache ambush on the Tomahawk Trail, gets wounded in a skirmish, and loses the command to his sergeant.
Director: Lesley Selander | Stars: Chuck Connors, John Smith, Susan Cummings, Lisa Montell
Votes: 332
bad image example - classic western formula. American settlers outnumbered and attaced of Native American force.
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