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Games / Re: Movie Title Chains
Last post by Rev. Powell - Today at 09:42:11 AMDo Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023)
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Games / Re: Answer the question with a...
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Who's your favorite member of royalty?
#17
Entertainment / Re: What have you been listeni...
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"A Pound of Feathers" by The Black Crowes
#18
Press Releases and Film News / Re: RIP Chuck Norris.
Last post by Trevor - Today at 09:27:00 AMRIP Mr Norris, an idol of mine as a teen 🥺😭😭😭😭😭😭
#19
Press Releases and Film News / RIP Chuck Norris.
Last post by Alex - Today at 09:20:24 AMThe marital arts legend and actor has sadly passed at the age of 86. I'll be watching Firewalker tonight in his memory.
#20
Good Movies / Re: Recent Viewings, Part 2
Last post by M.10rda - Today at 08:26:19 AMMASSACRE (1934):
Both admirably ahead of its time and tragically a prisoner of that time, MASSACRE tells a similar (true) story to that related in Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, only 90 years ahead of that (truly sprawling) film. (Also MASSACRE tells its story in 1/3 the time that it takes Scorsese.)
Joe is a wealthy indigenous rodeo performer, known nationwide as "Chief Thunderhorse" but living comfortably in a Chicago penthouse. When he learns his father is dying, he returns to the southwestern desert reservation where he grew up, and finds an unchecked criminal conspiracy by the palefaces. They aren't outrightly murdering natives like in KOTFM (usually, anyway) - the old white men (like King Hale) who "administer" the reservation are just [sic] denying the natives appropriate health care and then stealing their property and estate when the natives kick the bucket. An outsider, Joe won't stand for this corrupt status quo, and of course the old white men won't stand for an Injun not standing for their corrupt status quo. The studio probably wanted something like a traditional Western when they greenlit MASSACRE, but instead they got a generally realistic and compelling true-crime thriller.
MASSACRE is well-directed, on location, w/ a wide variety of shot set-ups and nice snappy editing. (There's a very tense, almost altogether silent jail-break sequence that was probably a relief for the early-30s sound engineers but works great onscreen.) It's co-written by Sheridan Gibney, who wrote THE (very good) LOCKET as well as the similarly socially conscious I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG. In a clever twist, the hero with whom the audience identifies isn't a noble white guy but an indigenous American who has fallen out of touch with his community and now needs to catch up, fast. Unfortunately, Joe is played not by an indigenous American but by a(n okay) white actor in brownface.
Yeah, that kinds of hamstrings MASSACRE's potential for being a pure force of Good.
There are a lot of authentic indigenous Americans onscreen in MASSACRE, in supporting roles and as extras, and only one of them (a paid thug for the white guys) is in any way sinister - the rest are purely sympathetic. The central female character is a college-educated Native who's returned to work on the reservation, helps Joe a great deal, and doesn't even have to shoulder a dumb romance subplot w/ him. (They hug in the final shot.) Unfortunately she's also played by a Caucasian technically in brownface
- but here I discover one limit to my enlightenment, as that Caucasian is the terrific actress Ann Dvorak, with straightened hair and what looks like a light tan... and she looks great, better perhaps than in anything else I've seen her in, and I'm always attracted to her. This must be what John Mayer meant when he said his penis was "a racist"? 
3.5/5 I wonder if anyone saw this movie in 1934 and did anything whatsoever about the Osage murders or any other shady crap on American reservations - I'd guess probably not. Historically people are ignorant, oblivious, and apathetic. Then again the same could be said for many people today...
Both admirably ahead of its time and tragically a prisoner of that time, MASSACRE tells a similar (true) story to that related in Scorsese's KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, only 90 years ahead of that (truly sprawling) film. (Also MASSACRE tells its story in 1/3 the time that it takes Scorsese.)
Joe is a wealthy indigenous rodeo performer, known nationwide as "Chief Thunderhorse" but living comfortably in a Chicago penthouse. When he learns his father is dying, he returns to the southwestern desert reservation where he grew up, and finds an unchecked criminal conspiracy by the palefaces. They aren't outrightly murdering natives like in KOTFM (usually, anyway) - the old white men (like King Hale) who "administer" the reservation are just [sic] denying the natives appropriate health care and then stealing their property and estate when the natives kick the bucket. An outsider, Joe won't stand for this corrupt status quo, and of course the old white men won't stand for an Injun not standing for their corrupt status quo. The studio probably wanted something like a traditional Western when they greenlit MASSACRE, but instead they got a generally realistic and compelling true-crime thriller.
MASSACRE is well-directed, on location, w/ a wide variety of shot set-ups and nice snappy editing. (There's a very tense, almost altogether silent jail-break sequence that was probably a relief for the early-30s sound engineers but works great onscreen.) It's co-written by Sheridan Gibney, who wrote THE (very good) LOCKET as well as the similarly socially conscious I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG. In a clever twist, the hero with whom the audience identifies isn't a noble white guy but an indigenous American who has fallen out of touch with his community and now needs to catch up, fast. Unfortunately, Joe is played not by an indigenous American but by a(n okay) white actor in brownface.
Yeah, that kinds of hamstrings MASSACRE's potential for being a pure force of Good.There are a lot of authentic indigenous Americans onscreen in MASSACRE, in supporting roles and as extras, and only one of them (a paid thug for the white guys) is in any way sinister - the rest are purely sympathetic. The central female character is a college-educated Native who's returned to work on the reservation, helps Joe a great deal, and doesn't even have to shoulder a dumb romance subplot w/ him. (They hug in the final shot.) Unfortunately she's also played by a Caucasian technically in brownface
- but here I discover one limit to my enlightenment, as that Caucasian is the terrific actress Ann Dvorak, with straightened hair and what looks like a light tan... and she looks great, better perhaps than in anything else I've seen her in, and I'm always attracted to her. This must be what John Mayer meant when he said his penis was "a racist"? 3.5/5 I wonder if anyone saw this movie in 1934 and did anything whatsoever about the Osage murders or any other shady crap on American reservations - I'd guess probably not. Historically people are ignorant, oblivious, and apathetic. Then again the same could be said for many people today...