Flap

I remember seeing this movie as a boy at the Intermountain Indian School in Brigham City, Utah. I thought it was a very good movie. It kept me laughing (like the book) for years. I still think of this movie and laugh on occasion. At the risk of sounding like I don't care (but being part Osage) I would like to say that the Native American uprising on the 70's (and in part fueled by getting the native plight out to the general population which this movie did) worked! The Native American Nations (at least the ones with any motivation) are prospering. The Osage have Oil on the res. Most reservations now have gaming on them that draw money to the res. Anyone that talks of the plight and whines of the times as they are now should try to become a quiet old man. I await the re-make of this fine film!

This movie shows somewhat of an Indian resistance movement before the American Indian Movement of 1973. I never read the book "Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian", but it sounds like a good book. It was probably better than this movie. This movie might have been better with more Indian actors in it, but, then, would it have had enough star power to attract viewers? Now for the movie: I remember a 1940s Chevrolet truck in it. There was a horse that was hard to ride with a saddle on it. An Indian destroys a white man's bulldozer, but later some Indians get together with the owner for a bender. It seems the Indians had an old deed or treaty that gave them title to the land under a city. Seems like maybe the city was Phoenix. Some Indians go to the city to serve notice. Will they get very far?

Anthony Quinn is first american Flapping Eagle, and of course, Shelley Winters as Dorothy. (she seemed to be miscast SO many times, in my tiny little opinion.) Story of life on the reservation. Quinn had been in films since the 1930s, so he was a seasoned pro by now, but he is so grandiose and over the top, that it gets kind of silly. Workers are blowing up all the land around the native americans to build a new highway, including their burial grounds. ( whether or not it really IS a burial ground, is up for debate.) this is a strange, serious yet comical take on the plight of the american indian groups, defending their land, as usual, against invasion by the white man. the audience is in on both the seriousness and the humorous approach, much like watching All in the Family. Directed by British Carol Reed. had a mix of hits and bombs; directed The Third Man. and won the Oscar for Oliver! Flap was filmed out in the desert of new mexico. Written by Clair Huffaker, who wrote THREE films for John Wayne!

Have you ever read a book, then seen the movie, and wonder-How did they screw it up so bad? This is one of those. The book by Huffaker, "Nobody Likes a Drunken Indian" was great, riotously funny...this movie is not. It seems as though nobody cared enough to move the direction along so we CARED about the characters. This movie, which touches on some real concerns about Indians, makes you wonder why we haven't seen more comedies about the holocaust, or slavery. Not well done.

Typical of the early seventies, after - or during - the success of SOLDIER BLUE and othe LITTLE BIG MAN, I mean the Natives Americans living conditions...I did not expect such a film from director Carold Reed, though he gave us, seven years earlier, THE RUNNING MAN, starring Larry Harvey, also surprising from him. However THE RUNNING MAN was closer to THE THIRD MAN, in terms of plot, than this FLAP - THE LAST WARRIOR, scheme. Martin Ritt, and his social involvement (HOMBRE) would have been more "predictable" in the choice of the director than Carol Reed. But it remains a good film. But I persist and sign: Martin Ritt, or Sid Pollack would have been more "concerned" in such a plot. Or John Frankenheimer.