Reel Injun
A documentary about the portrayal of the Native American Indian in film throught the last 100 years.
While I have no Indian in me, I found this to be a very riveting film. It is told by Indians and spans the last century, from the invention of film to present day, in a march of decades as each era in film left it's mark.
I learned a lot from this movie. The writing for the naration is superb! Going into this movie, I was expecting this to be a very dry, dull and probably biased film. It was anything but that. In reviewing this movie, i am looking back at it with a very specific measuring stick. I am comparing it to any of the "similar" films i have seen about the history of Jews. While I don't wish to disrespect any culture, I have yet to see a Jewish made film about Jews that isn't overly biased (possibly because the vast majority were ones I watched at the Jewish Federation of Canada headquarters). I was expecting the same from this film as well and was very surprised to find that while the plight of the Native American at the hands of "the white man" is a part of this film, it does not become the focal point - and amazingly, there is an unexpected amount of humor derived from that, which goes a long ways towards making this an enjoyable film from an "outsiders" perspective.
This movie "moved" me and I learned a lot from it as well - about things I didn't know I didn't know about.
If you are a "student of Film" to any degree, or are at all interested in a brief history of the Native American in the last 100 years, I think this movie would be time very well spent.
Rating: 9/10
