The Redman's View

A previous commentator wrote: "I was blown away by the beauty of the actress playing the Indian maiden in this film. From the first moment you see her on screen she looks like you could reach out and touch her, she is so realistic. The D.W. Griffith Years of Discovery liner notes say she was "unknown." Well, that is a crying shame! How could someone not document who she was? She was stunning, and completely believable. If anyone knows who she was, please post it here for posterity."

I have not seen the film. However, to possibly solve the mystery... it could have been Ruth Hart, as she was about 16 years old when the film was made. If it was not Ruth Hart, then I agree that it is a crying shame. Griffith usually included credits for the main actors, and it's hard to believe that the Indian maiden actress would go uncredited.

It is films like this that should be shown on TCM or FMC.

In terms of innovative cinematography that would later become D. W. Griffith's trademark, there isn't much here. The story of "The Redman's View" is told just like any other - in long shots - making it difficult for the viewer to really catch the emotion of the sensitive subject matter and embellish what is happening beyond the level that a long shot can do. Still, the film is well made for the time period and one can only speculate how much better it could have looked had it been made around 1912 or so, when Griffith's shorts were much more skillfully made.

"The Redman's View" deals with a subject that was common at that point in American history: Indian displacement. In the film, a pair of Indian lovers are separated due to the arrival of the white men who order the Indians to find a new home. The girl however is forced to stay with the white men, and is unable to help her ailing father who dies along the way in search of a new homeland. It's a relatively simple story that is easy to follow and the commentary, while not as strong as it could have been, is on point the entire time. It becomes clear watching it who Griffith favors in the film, and the title even indicates this further. A well-made little piece of commentary of a historical premise.

This solemn little tale is often held up as one of the more remarkable Biograph westerns. While Griffith predominantly treated Native Americans sympathetically (albeit patronisingly so) The Red Man's View, as the title suggests, differs in that it tells a story solely from the Indian perspective.

What is really interesting is how he uses physical arrangements to show this point of view and the protagonists' plight. The white men appear over the hillside as a kind of characterless swarm – an impersonal force, rather than a group of individuals. The Indians on the other hand advance slowly across the landscape in single file, dignified, each one an individual.

This is one of Griffith's first really great outdoor pictures. The vast empty spaces allow for maximum impact as actors approach us from the distance. This use of depth had a massive influence on Charlie Chaplin – think of how many times the little tramp entered or exited a scene over a great distance, all the better to show off that unique walk. In the final scenes the wind howls across the wasteland – a great bit of atmospherics that was pioneering for its time.

1909 was a period of incredibly speedy development in Griffith's style and competence. We go from nonsense like The Voice of The Violin and What Drink Did earlier in the year, to this simple yet stylish piece of storytelling. However, the best was yet to come with Griffith's very next picture – A Corner in Wheat.

This very early D.W. Griffith short is a simple, sensitive, and mostly effective look at the some of the ways that American Indians were affected as a result of being displaced from their traditional territories. The story is straightforward, following an Indian village that was forced off its land, and that thus must travel to find a new home. The filming techniques are also the simple ones of the time, but with a few good touches to emphasize the weariness and sadness that accompany the displacement. The subject is treated thoughtfully and mostly without over-simplification, making it a pretty good film despite its simplicity.

D. W. Griffith's take on the plight of Native Americans somehow manages to be sympathetic while also ending with a persecuted Indian showing his gratitude to the white man who has expelled him from his land for allowing him to leave with his woman. It's not one of Griffith's best - far too much time is spent showing the homeless Indians disconsolately wandering the plains in search of a new home - but Billy Bitzer's cinematography looks stunning at times.