Film
What is a stereotype?
A simplified or standardized conception or image invested with special meaning and held in common by members of a group (can be positive/negative/neutral)
Redface
Guidelines for evaluating portrayals of Native Americans (see doc)
basic questions to ask:
when was it made?
where was it made?
who produced it?
who directed it?
who wrote it?
who starred in it?
what was the budget?
who was the intended audience?
The Silent Era - actualities (functional), actors, +/-, budgets, the noble hero
Hollywood of the 30s and 40s - the Studio System and the increasing costs of filmmaking. Entertainment as the goal
The "Hollywood Indian"
presenting Indians as Hollywood saw them rather than how they actually are
The Westerns of the 1940s, 50s and 60s
The cowboys/sheriffs were the good guys, they needed villains (civilized vs savage)
Animation - Peter Pan (1953) - do we hold animation to the same standards as "real" films?
The 1960s and 70s - the Indian as victim (anti-Westerns) (and the cowboy could be an anti-hero)
The 1980s - largely absent from the screen
1990s - Dances With Wolves (1990), the "beginnings" of Indian filmmakers - Chris Eyre, Smoke Signals (1998)
2000s, 2010s - some contemporary settings, redface still exists
2020s - realism?
Themes ( a compiling of sources)
victims or savages?
stuck in time
Western tribes
central conflict - how is "civilization" advanced? (majority framing of issues)
serving a "white" agenda - whites could exist without Indians...
doomed to vanish
use of language - from perjoratives to authenticity
one with nature - environmental gurus
Categorizations (Larson, 2006) (King, 2006)
the noble Indian - stoic, reserved, doomed, "degraded"
the savage/bad Indian - is only up to no good, is a barrier to American interests
exterminated, accomodated or assimilated?
the good Indian - one who adopts majority ways
the degraded Indian - lost his Indianness but can't assimilate, drunk, beyond redemption
the Indian princess/squaw - physical appearance, role in the tribe
princess - lighter skinned, needs protection, "doomed to a tragic love with a white man"
often the Indian princess falls for the "white hero/white savior" - the only person who can save the tribe from certain defeat
Indian values (Leuthold, 1995)
degree of historical accuracy
potential benefit of the film to native communities
tendency to commodify images
who has the power to determine images
sensitivity and complexity of Native life
Indian - non-Indian relationships - equality?
role models
progress
idealization (positive or negative?)
Native participation and perspective
gender roles