Children of the Dust

Don't know what film or version Jeff saw, but this entire film was awesome, not just Poitier and Going. The story was riveting, suspenseful and engaging. And for the guy complaining about historical accuracy, get real. Yes there were some Black deputy marshals in the Indian territory, but they had no authority to arrest Whites outside of Indian territory. As a rule, they did not "patrol" but exercised warrants on criminals only. I did find it odd that Corby didn't seem to have "any' Indian friends. I know their numbers were diminished but it still strikes me as strange. Even as Corby returned to his people, his Indian cohorts remain faceless and nameless.

It's the 1880's. Sidney Poitier plays a bounty hunter named Gypsy Smith, half of African American, half of Cherokee descent. He helps African American settlers to find a new home in the town of their own- Freedom in the Oklahoma territory. The local KKK tries to prevent their plan with their mindless cross burnings and killings. Meanwhile Rachel Maxwell is madly in love with the Cheyenne boy, White Wolf, who was brought to live with the family by Gypsy. Children of the Dust (1995) is a two-part western miniseries directed by David Greene. It shows us what racism looked like in the old west in a touching way. What the Ku Klux Klan does here is really heartbreaking and causes anger in the viewer. Sidney Poitier, now 92, gives a very strong performance as the aging gunslinger. There's certain sweetness between the scenes of Gypsy and the schoolteacher Drusilla, wonderfully played by Regina Taylor. Joanna Going is superb as Rachel and Billy Wirth is terrific as Corby/White Wolf. There is a great deal of eroticism and romance in many scenes between them. Michael Moriarty is fantastic as John Maxwell and so is Farrah Fawcett as his wife Nora. Hart Bochner is scary good as the villain Shelby Hornbeck. There are also talents like Shirley Knight, James Caviezel and Robert Guillaume in the movie. I recommend you take a look at this miniseries when you get a chance. At least I was moved by it.

I can imagine why he'd want to die, after starring in this rubbish. The man is incredible, but even Sidney Poitier couldn't save this tiresome morality play about racism in the old West. He and Joanna Going are both fantastic in this film: too bad the screenplay, co-stars, directing, and score couldn't match those two.

I have given this movie a six because of the power of the story. I would have given it a higher mark but for the historical inaccuracies of the story. Its strong point was the fact that it showed black people in the west where they surely were, but in this movie present the first of the inacfcuracies. It would not have been abnormal at all for black people to have been in Oklahoma territory in the latter part of the 19th century. They had been there since the trail of tears. Some of the transplanted Natives were slave holders and simply brought their slaves with them. Second, a black Marshall in that territory would not have been strange at all. Gypsy Smith could have easily been modeled after Bass Reeves who was one of several Black US Marshalls who patrolled Okla territory. While there has always been problems between black and white Americans, it did not really occur in Oklahoma until it became a state. Thirdly, I can't believe that the light bulb which was only invented in 1879 would have been used in a barn in Oklahoma. Great idea for a movie, but could have been more accurate.

But the DVD I bought from Amazon had about an hour cut out. One reviewer said it was about twenty minutes or more I believe but it was at least an hour. I knew the series had been chopped up but since I love it so much, I decided to get it anyway. I don't know why it could not have been left whole.