War Party

Probably I've watched this movie half-a-dozen times, once with a white theatre audience close to the rez and the rest on tape with Blackfeet high school students. The student attitude was summed up by a handsome young man who sighed and remarked, "The first time you see it, it seems pretty good, but after about the third time, it just falls apart." The theatre audience just didn't like it, period.

It was fun to see friends and neighbors in a movie. Locals grew fond of the actors while they were in town. But the whole line of argument that drove the plot meant nothing to the people it was supposed to be about. Sure, there's racism -- but it comes to us as job discrimination or court systems or broken families or drug peddlers. Renegade kids are not romantically pursued over the landscape by caricature bad guys. (What the heck was the idea of Rodney Grant's character, anyway?) They just get picked up speeding or something -- by officers who are Indian -- and end up quietly taken to jail.

I hated the faux samurai ending, romanticizing death in a place where suicide is a problem. Plainly this was a movie written by people who didn't want to know anything about reality and didn't care what impact their movie had on the people to whom they were supposed to be sympathetic. It's a projection of themselves, a continuing problem for Native American films and one that has mostly been solved so far by Indians making their own movies.

Long and forgotten, this movie depiction of young Native-America is indeed a heart twister and adds fire to the burning soul. I was fortunate enough to see this film the year it was released, and was blown away with the story concept. I believe with the exception of "Kevin Dillon" (who by the way is an incredible actor), really wasn't convincing enough to play even a half-breed in this particular film.

Strongly enough, however he does manage to pull it off, even though he wasn't my first choice for this film, I have viewed his performances in other astounding movies such as "Platoon" and the sort, where his personal character finds more of it's true calling. Just not this film. Overall however it is a powerful cut and slowly sucks you in, with a surprise bar fight confrontation that later turns out to be more then was expected, of course leading into the courageous plot of the film. Where you just want to see the Indian's win, just this once. But do they? Well you'll just have to hunt this bad boy down to find out.

But "Good Luck" trying to find this flick especially on DVD it's a tough one. Especially since it blew over so many peoples heads, the first time around. As for me...I still can see the vivid storyline as it echoes through the spotlights of my mind, even several years later. Great story! But quite underrated! A film you'll never forget. If you ever get the chance, See it!

Yeah - I guess, I'm a typical guy, because I like mindless entertainment. Package it with decent acting, at least passable scripting, and good production values and I'll watch it.

This is a silly movie...A reinactment of a battle of settlers vs. Indians goes awry and people really start getting shot..... You can hear the people in the studios getting excited over this one as they dug deep for the money to finance it.

But really it's not THAT bad. You've got Matt Dillon's little brother (who I really like more, because he's more interesting) and you've got Billy Wirth (who, when this movie was made had appeared in The Lost Boys and nothing more). They can act though. The sets are good - (and let's face it - I love a western - even an implausible one) and the action is exciting, albeit stupid.

Okay, so the movie's no good - but it's a good kind of no good. It beats a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

During a peaceful reconstitution of an old battle between Indians and American soldiers, an Indian is killed with true munitions by a boozed white man and racial tension explodes again and again and again...

The first sequence is unique, beginning with a close up of a feather flowing to the corpse of a dead Indian, then we discover more and more surprising situations. There are a lot of surprising situations, shot in amazing Montana locations.

What a pity, War Party is unavailable in br or even dvd, only in vintage VHS or on YouTube. It really deserves recognition. Director Franc Roddam has shot very few movies, I've only seen Quadrophenia about mods in England, at the total opposite of War Party. Hanx PG.

Pretty well-written and well-directed. The plot has holes, and there are the stereo-typical Caucasian jerks one expects to find in a story involving racial tension between two cultures. However, despite its failings, this film has a refreshing quality to it. The dialog is far more natural than one usually finds, and the characters mostly behave the way people really behave... mostly. Predictable? Yes, but I've seen far worse.