I remember seeing James Stewart in the 1950 film BROKEN ARROW and being impressed at the positive view of the American Indian shown. Stewart's love (and marriage) for an Indian maidin who is killed by vengeful white men, was powerful and very touching. The 1925 Paramount silent version of Zane Grey's THE VANISHING AMERICAN is even more of an eye-opener! This is not a run of the mill "B" Western as so many of the films based on Zane Grey works were. This is a major Western in the tradition of Paramount's famous 1923 film, THE COVERED WAGON. No film (not even the marvelous films of John Ford)have shown the Indian as he must of lived in former times. The locations are the real thing (and beautifully photographed) and the numbers of extras are huge. One sees hundreds of Indians living in the clift dwellings and riding among the spectacular areas of Arizona and Utah (made famous in the Ford films). The first portion of the film attempts to trace the history of the first people to populate this land and follows their changing conditions through history. Some tribes grow weak and are over-taken by more powerful tribes. Powerful tribes are taken in by the arrival of the white men under Cortez and there first view of a horse (actually THE BOOK OF MORMON, a second testament to Jesus Christ gives a more acurate account of where the horses came from) -- but the Indians believe the horse to be some sort of god and thus subject themselves to the white man. The main story takes up just before American enters World War I and shows the sorry stake of the American Indian, now living on reservations and being cheated out of anything of value that they still have. Richard Dix does a marvelous job playing an Indian who has great values and respect for his people. The film shows the U.S. Governments need and request from the Indians for horses to help in the war. Through Dix's efforts they gain not only horses but enlistment from many of the Indian men. They play an important part in the War effort, but when they return to their land it is to conditions that have worsened, not improved. Thus the climax is set up. Truly an unusal film to survive from the silent era -- and one well worth taking a look at. The surviving material is beautiful to look at, but does contain a degree of flicker caused by the deterioration of the nitrate film that it was printed on. A choice addition to my DVD collection!
Review of The Vanishing American
