Redskin (film)

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Redskin
Directed by	Victor Schertzinger
Written by	Elizabeth Pickett
Starring	Richard Dix Julie Carter
Music by	Louis De Francesco and J.S. Zamecnik
Cinematography	Ray Rennahan and Edward T. Estabrook
Editing by	Otho Lovering
Distributed by	Paramount
Release date(s)	February 23, 1929
Running time	90 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Redskin is a 1929 feature film with a synchronized score and sound effects that was photographed partially in Technicolor. Color was used for the scenes taking place on the Indians' land, while black and white was used only in the scenes in the white man's world. Roughly two-thirds of this film is in color.

The title of the film is not meant to be degrading to American Indian. It refers to the film's hero, Wing Foot (Richard Dix), who is a Navaho educated at the school of white man. In the course of the story he experiences prejudice from both the whites (because of his race) and the Navahos (who disown him because of his upbringing. Thus, Wing Foot is looked upon as neither Indian nor white, but simply a "redskin."

Made in the first liberal decade of the twientieth century, the film deals sympathetically with the American Indians in an era of filmmaking that far too many people think was one where Indians were shown as murderous savages. The conservativism of the 1940's and 1950's relegated the image of the American Indian as a murderous savage once again. It wouldn't be until the late 1960's and 1970's (when liberalism came to the forefront once again) that films as sympathetic as Redskin would be made once again.

Not only does Redskin avoid this stereotype, but it also sidesteps the more contemporary, "politically correct" stereotype. In those films the Indians are generally depicted as being mainly peaceful and morally right, while the whites (save the main protagonist) are seen as the bloodthirsty savages - greedy bigots with little or no redeeming values. Instead of showing the red man as evil and the white man good - or vice versa - Redskin presents good and bad in both. The government agent who beats Wing Foot in the beginning of the picture eventually emerges as a decent man - some one who made a mistake and later regretted it. At the end he redeems himself by aiding Wing Foot in his attempt to register his oil claim. Redskin presents not only the conflict between whites and Indians, but also between the Indian races (Navajos and Pueblos are shown to dislike each other).

The film exists and has been restored but has never been shown on television or made available for purchase. Every once in awhile, it is screened at special theatres catering to movie fans such as the one at UCLA.