The Redman's View

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.

I just got this DVD set and also read the liner notes and the status of the unknown actress. But Minnewanna is obviously played by Lottie Pickford, the actress sister of superstar, Mary Pickford. Check out photos of Lottie Pickford on various web sites.

Griffith is the most important director in the history of American films. That he was considered hopelessly old fashioned by the dawn on talkies is irrelevant. His early short films helped set the tone for the look and feel and attitudes toward Indians, cowboys, the American West, the Civil War, etc. While this film (at 15 minutes) is not dramatically moving, it IS important as an early look at Griffith's love of and attitudes toward history. Even in 1909 he was not afraid of portraying the settlers as "conquerors" any more than he was afraid to take an honest look at our Civil War period in THE BIRTH OF A NATION in 1915.

Very few movies take the viewpoint of Native Americans during the 1800's. John Ford's 1964 "Cheyenne Autumn" comes to mind as the prototype movie depicting the plight of the Indians in the late 1800's. Biograph Studios in December 1909 took the step by releasing Hollywood's first film dealing with the Indians' forced evacuation from their homeland in "The Redman's View," directed by D.W. Griffith. Despite not being on the grand scale we all come to expect from today's huge Western productions, "The Redman's View" does translate its message of the modern civilization's harsh realities of what its people did to ease the Indians from their ancestral land. Shot in northern New Jersey, Griffith's movie shows a tribe being forced from its home to begin a long journey that would cost them lives. The young Indian woman who is singled out to remain with the lascivious white men is played by Mary Pickford's younger sister, Lottie. Mary had secured acting roles for Lottie at Biograph Studios, one being "Redman." Lottie would appear in numerous films from 1909 until 1925, but her career was overshadowed by her more famous sister. Lottie became quite the party "girl" and would die at the age of 43 from a heart attack related to alcohol abuse.

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.

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.

This film was pretty sensitive to the Indians' cause, and also showed that the white man could also get along with the Indians when they showed true Christian character towards them. Owen Moore and James Kirkwood perform well. The father's death scene is moving and poignant. Was D.W. Griffith a racist? If he was you couldn't tell it from this film.