Post by alfuso on Mar 13, 2008 22:31:53 GMT -6
CUSTER IS A DEAD WHITE GUY - CAN HE BE SAVED?
by L. Terrell
Killing Custer was probably not in the Indians' best interests. Yet why is killing Custer still so popular? Because he killed Indians and represented people who killed Indians? It's gotta be deeper than that.
Indians have spent decades in Hollywood being killed -- usually because "they was Injuns." Lately, they've been allowed to die for a reason. This is called parity.
Hollywood Indians used to say things like: "Me drinkum firewater. Me gettum crazy. Me scalpum. Me heap warrior." And their life expectancy rarely lasted through a box of popcorn
Now we get Indian lines like: "A change of clothes and a smart horse."(Dances With Wolves) "He's a real pistol." (TNT's "Crazy Horse) Or "A medley of Arikara harvest songs." (UPN's "Legend" series, "Custer's Next To Last Stand" episode). While the older generation gives us "Sometimes the magic works" and "Wanna eat?" (When they were younger, they used to get killed because "they was Injuns." If they lived to get old, they get wisdom)
Indians get to dress swell, paint their faces and bodies, ride like the wind on painted horses, hooting and hollering, hair streaming and killing buffalo. When was the last time you partied like that?
Then along comes Custer, who not only dresses well, he's a major party animal with a better head of Hollywood hair, a knock out wife and a bigger supporting cast who ride like the wind on better horses, hooting and hollering and scaring off the buffalo.
Custer has STYLE.
Indians appreciate style -- they are very good at it. But now here's this natty dresser, ace horsemen and genuine warrior who isn't one of them. They kill him.
But by killing Custer, the Indians rob themselves and give Custer the world's best Death Scene. Let's face it -- nobody goes out bigger or better than Custer with the possible exception of Captain Ahab and the Titanic, but not in the same film. Custer goes out Big. Grand. In STYLE.
OK, so maybe he needs a bath and a shave, or merely a touch-up. Do we care? The Indians may win -- but it's always "CUSTER'S Last Stand," "CUSTER'S Last Battle," "Death of CUSTER."
After all that work, Hollywood Indians now find themselves cheated out of the extra money a really good, on screen, close up Death Scene is worth. Indians always die "over there." Custer dies in your face, and gets a bigger check.
Not only that, many of the Indians' greatest heroes died ignominiously: Crazy Horse bayonetted in the back in a dusty backwater Army post. Sitting Bull shot by Indian Police in a raid after "selling out" to Bill Cody. Geronimo spending his last years as a "pet Indian." Chief Joseph surrendering in sheer exhaustion. This is pathos. But, one way or another, they all GAVE UP. Custer never gave up. He went out in style -- hopelessly surrounded atop a desolate hill, fighting in "noble desperation." And dies with his face filling the screen. It's in his contract and the Indians will never catch up. This has left them peevish -- which is not stylish.
alfuso
by L. Terrell
Killing Custer was probably not in the Indians' best interests. Yet why is killing Custer still so popular? Because he killed Indians and represented people who killed Indians? It's gotta be deeper than that.
Indians have spent decades in Hollywood being killed -- usually because "they was Injuns." Lately, they've been allowed to die for a reason. This is called parity.
Hollywood Indians used to say things like: "Me drinkum firewater. Me gettum crazy. Me scalpum. Me heap warrior." And their life expectancy rarely lasted through a box of popcorn
Now we get Indian lines like: "A change of clothes and a smart horse."(Dances With Wolves) "He's a real pistol." (TNT's "Crazy Horse) Or "A medley of Arikara harvest songs." (UPN's "Legend" series, "Custer's Next To Last Stand" episode). While the older generation gives us "Sometimes the magic works" and "Wanna eat?" (When they were younger, they used to get killed because "they was Injuns." If they lived to get old, they get wisdom)
Indians get to dress swell, paint their faces and bodies, ride like the wind on painted horses, hooting and hollering, hair streaming and killing buffalo. When was the last time you partied like that?
Then along comes Custer, who not only dresses well, he's a major party animal with a better head of Hollywood hair, a knock out wife and a bigger supporting cast who ride like the wind on better horses, hooting and hollering and scaring off the buffalo.
Custer has STYLE.
Indians appreciate style -- they are very good at it. But now here's this natty dresser, ace horsemen and genuine warrior who isn't one of them. They kill him.
But by killing Custer, the Indians rob themselves and give Custer the world's best Death Scene. Let's face it -- nobody goes out bigger or better than Custer with the possible exception of Captain Ahab and the Titanic, but not in the same film. Custer goes out Big. Grand. In STYLE.
OK, so maybe he needs a bath and a shave, or merely a touch-up. Do we care? The Indians may win -- but it's always "CUSTER'S Last Stand," "CUSTER'S Last Battle," "Death of CUSTER."
After all that work, Hollywood Indians now find themselves cheated out of the extra money a really good, on screen, close up Death Scene is worth. Indians always die "over there." Custer dies in your face, and gets a bigger check.
Not only that, many of the Indians' greatest heroes died ignominiously: Crazy Horse bayonetted in the back in a dusty backwater Army post. Sitting Bull shot by Indian Police in a raid after "selling out" to Bill Cody. Geronimo spending his last years as a "pet Indian." Chief Joseph surrendering in sheer exhaustion. This is pathos. But, one way or another, they all GAVE UP. Custer never gave up. He went out in style -- hopelessly surrounded atop a desolate hill, fighting in "noble desperation." And dies with his face filling the screen. It's in his contract and the Indians will never catch up. This has left them peevish -- which is not stylish.
alfuso
