A Man Called Horse (1970)
Paramount DVD (Region 1, 4)
d. Elliot Silverstein; pr. Sandy Howard; scr. Jack DeWitt; ph. Robert Hauser, Gabriel Torres; ed. Philip Anderson, Michael Kahn; m. Leonard Rosenman; prod d. Dennis Lynton Clark; cast. Richard Harris, Dame Judith Anderson, Jean Gascon, Manu Tupou, Corinna Tsopei, Dub Taylor, James Gammon (114 mins)
When the American Western entered its somewhat revisionist era of the late 1960s, a number of interesting trends began to emerge. Although foremost amongst these may have been the emphasis on violence, both realistic and stylized in the films of Sam Peckinpah (especially The Wild Bunch) for instance, there were other important directions.
The so-called “mud-and-rags” school of the Western movie developed the realistic dirt and grime of this period in history and some films (such as Will Penny and the original Bad Company) sought to emphasize the ordinary existence of the cowboy whilst being aware of both the romantic heritage and the painterly traditions of depicting the West. However, one of the most noticeable changes in attitude and focus was evident in a number of films which sought to give more attention to the American Indian, doomed to villainous status in much of the genre’s past. Indeed, even John Ford sought to restore to the American Indian his lost dignity and due pathos in Cheyenne Autumn. A number of films followed, concentrating on the Indian experience of history, birthing such classics as Little Big Man and Soldier Blue. However, the most remarkable of these was A Man Called Horse, for it alone sought an anthropological objectivity as much as possible in a fiction. It too proved an unusual success at the box-office and was followed by two sequels and several imitators.
In A Man Called Horse, Richard Harris (in a role he reportedly counted as amongst his very best) plays an English nobleman on a hunting trip in America. He is slightly bored and even disillusioned with his existence. His guides are killed by a Sioux raiding party and he is soon taken prisoner whilst bathing.
Naked and humiliated, the Indians mock him, force him down on all fours and call him a horse. He is led to a Sioux village where he is given as a slave / servant to the mother (Dame Judith Anderson) of one of the warriors. Harris’ chances to escape prove fruitless and he settles for existence and survival within the Sioux tribe. He meets another former captive (Jean Gascon) who has survived by pretending to be kind of tribe idiot / mascot. Harris learns what he can through Gascon (who speaks English) and soon starts to enter into Sioux society and culture. He has plans to escape but is increasingly drawn into the Indian culture and seeks to take a bride. In leaping to the aid of some children, and killing for the first time, he becomes an accepted presence, ready to even become a warrior (a valued position in tribe hierarchy). Before marriage, however, he must prove himself worthy and go through the ritual Sun Vow ceremony, a mystical Sioux rite of passage. After this ordeal, he quickly rises in stature and leadership, calling on his knowledge of military strategy when the tribe is attacked by rival Indians.
This film stresses vivid authenticity with an almost ethnographic documentary veracity.
Much of it unfolds as if it were a documentary, intent on recreating and capturing as accurately as possible a bygone civilization, long considered savage and even inferior. Thus what was considered most unusual about it, and which indeed remains distinctive, was its heartfelt insistence that Sioux culture is as valid a “civilization” as any other. To do this, it aligns the viewer with Harris and slowly charts how Harris’s views of that culture change as he is stripped of his sense of arrogant cultural superiority and must in a sense re-invent himself. What seems initially savage and barbaric thus becomes beautiful and even transcendental as a lifestyle. However, therein lies what is still for many the inherent problematic in the film: that it must see this culture as inherently different and therefore in need of some kind of dramatic validation through the survivalist “triumph” of a white man. In thus straddling the documentarian and the dramatic perspectives, the film does emerge a complex analysis of the Sioux lifestyle as a kind of valid cultural alternative. What is important thus is that Harris grows to respect this culture not necessarily as superior or inferior to his own but as worthy of equal consideration. It is only when he sees it as such that he is ready to shed his own sense of cultural artifice and enter fully into it: it becomes no longer a question of survival but of cultural socialization and even appropriation.
This emphasis on ethnographic validity and the transcendence of cultural barriers centers on the powerful recreation of the Sun Vow ceremony. The ceremony was once a vital ritual in Sioux culture but (as the opening informs us) had been banned by the US government as barbaric since the late 1800s.
Although a gruesome ritual of what must be excruciating pain, the film treats it as a kind of mystical experience. It sees it as the Sioux do. Thus, when Harris undergoes it, he experiences the hallucinatory, spiritual insight that proves the last step in his entry into and acceptance of Sioux culture – it is only through participation in rituals of communal meaning that one can fully participate as an equal. The Sun Vow ceremony is thus accepted by the filmmakers as a valid expression of Sioux identity, at once savage, beautiful and for the participants even transcendental. It is also the culmination of what is a major secondary theme through the film – the nature of masochism. Although Harris is subjected to much brutalization, the film stresses that it is through such pain that he grows as a person, in readiness for the final Sun Vow ceremony where pain, insight and spiritual pleasure are powerfully intermixed. The complex nature of Harris’ masochistic journey is developed in perfect tandem to his discovery of the beauty in a seemingly savage culture – few films have been as poetic about male masochism as A Man Called Horse.
DVD DETAILS:
Vision
Thankfully, the visual transfer on this DVD, in anamorphic widescreen, is close to outstanding, as good as one is likely to see. The freshness of the transfer is unusual for a film now over thirty years old. Although authenticity is stressed in every frame, it reveals an astonishing appreciation for natural colors, evident in the first stunning sunset shot and in some astonishing visual segues in the course of the narrative. Only the minor use of the zoom lens perhaps dates this film. Director Elliot Silverstein (in his best movie) emphasizes the physical nature of Harris’ ordeal as he is captured naked (the idea of white civilization stripped bare) and painfully humiliated. The details of the Sioux camp, in costume, makeup and set design, are as convincing as is the stress on the daily existence of the Sioux people. Days and seasons pass with authentic but naturally unhurried emphasis. It is in this mode of simultaneous observational and dramatic recreation that A Man Called Horse earns its prominent status in the field of anthropological fiction. Production design is exquisite in this transfer and there is a dazzling firelight at night sequence: indeed, the film implies the role of the elements in the Sioux definition of survival and spiritual mastery. The landscape photography also captures this idea of elemental beauty. The core of the movie is still the recreation of the Sun Vow ceremony, a truly stunning set piece which extends the authentic into the mystical.
Sound
The sound transfer on this DVD is equally exceptional, updating the material to a crisp, Dolby digital 5.1 surround recording. Whilst this may arguably jazz up the original source material for the age of home theatre, it makes for a most engrossing experience. As it is without hiss, the film hinges on quiet natural sounds, building alongside a most distinctive and unusual score which makes use of authentic instruments and oddly disconcerting noises. Slowly, minor ambient sounds begin to take on directional characteristics and the delicacy of the sound design encompasses both the vastness of the landscape and the increasing intimacy and togetherness Harris slowly discovers there. As expected, natural sounds, and weather, predominate. Native Sioux language is spoken throughout and is left untranslated, capturing Harris’s sense of isolation and bewilderment as he is trapped in an “other” culture. It also allows for Sioux culture to have equal standing and validity. The juxtaposition of languages serves to suggest that other more common means of human interpersonal connection be sought – the function of communal rituals and rites of passage. The sound transfer makes for an unbroken immersion in the Sioux existence as effective with the day to day progress as it is with the violent battle set pieces towards the end. Again, the use of sound in the Sun Vow ceremony enhances the hallucinatory feel of much of it. Voices are always distinctive and measured and the performances are impeccable.
Special Features
There were two sequels to A Man Called Horse – Return of a Man Called Horse (which features an even more elaborate Sun Vow ceremony) and the disappointing Triumphs of a Man Called Horse – both of which found their way onto DVD before the original film was belatedly released. Alas, there are no special features on the DVD of the original film, the only shortcoming on what is an excellent transfer of a remarkable movie. With some special features this would have been an outstanding DVD collector’s edition.
