A Man Called Horse

A Man Called Horse Sale

A CAREFULLY DOCUMENTED EPIC THAT ATTEMPTED TO REALISTICALLY PORTRAY THE LIFE OF AMERICAN SIOUX IN THE EARLY 19TH CENTURY. WHEN AN ENGLISH LORD IS CAPTURED BY A SIOUX INDIAN TRIBE, HE IS GIVEN TO THE CHIEF'S AGING MOTHER AS A SERVANT. GRADUALLY, HE EMBRACES THE TRIBE'S WAY OF LIFE.

Special Price at Amazon Click to See Price

Description




American Indians were a "cool" factor in 1970 cinema, the year A Man Called Horse made its vigorous, feverishly real, and occasionally shocking debut alongside Little Big Man and Soldier Blue. Unlike the latter two films, however, Horse is less an allegory for Vietnam-era America and more of a vision quest for historical identity. In one of his defining roles, Richard Harris plays an English aristocrat captured by Dakota Sioux in 1825. Over time, he adopts their way of life and eventually becomes tribal leader--but not before undergoing savage initiation rituals, the most famous of which involves being suspended by blades inserted beneath Harris's pectoral muscles. Horse looks clunky, quaint, and inadvertently demeaning in some respects today, but the film's Native American milieu is at least defined on its own terms, i.e., whole cloth and apart from familiar Western conventions. The real draw is Harris, whose performance has a soulful integrity. --Tom Keogh


A Man Called Horse Customer Review


I saw this when it came out and was utterly enthralled by it. Having been raised on cowboy TV, where the Indian is invariably a dangerous savage, this film and Little Big Man were a revelation to me. LBM was the first film I had seen that portrayed Indians not only as vivid individuals but sympathetically, though it verged on melodrama. Horse was even better in so many ways. The Indians first appeared as cruel and brutal, then became human and sympathetic as the film played on. It is exactly the kind of evolution in perception that one can experience in another culture, with no holds bared and consistent realism throughout. It is truly masterful in the way that it absorbs the white man into the tribe as an honored member and future leader, including the test of courage and pain. I particularly liked the Frenchman, who taught him about Sioux ways; I have long remembered his pose: he acted crazy and came to be viewed as a kind of good-luck fool, so was not asked to work.

Now, nearly 40 years later, I watched it with my son, 10. He was shocked at first, then came to understand the culture some, and asked me plenty of questions. This was a great pleasure to me, indeed it is the reason I got the film. I could re-live it with him and stimulate his mind as well.

Warmly recommended. I enjoyed it as much as I did as a youth.

★★★ Read More Reviews ★★★