"Walk The Proud Land" (c) 1956
[Am watching the film 'Walk The Proud Land', on AMC this morning. It's an Audie Murphy film about John Clum, an Indian Agent in Arizona at the time of Geronimo, after The Apache Wars. Clum was an interesting character, the first agent of the San Carlos Apache Reservation in 1873, was the owner, on one time, of both the Tucson Citizen newspaper and of the Tombstone Epitaph and was Tombstone's first mayor. Was one of the few white men at the time, who treated Apaches as actual human beings.
Yet this film I can only give one star. The history is incredibly distorted and inaccurate, the portrayal of the Apaches is in that classic racist Hollywood style of the 1950's, with lots of grunts by the Indians, bizarre tribal dancing that looks like something out of a Broadway revival, and showing Apache chiefs as lecherous men who think women need to be fattened up and beaten. I can go on and on. My favorite laughable moment is seeing Anne Bancroft playing the role of the Apache woman Tianay who is hopelessly in love with Audie.
But I do give it one star and say, that on a rainy day, it's worth watching simply for these two reasons: One, it shows how far we have come in our understanding and respect of Native People in the last 50 years (even though we have farther to go) and secondly, you can see the scenery of my home in the Sonoran Desert beautifully filmed by the director Jesse Hibbs. It was filmed at Old Tucson Studios and the Tucson Mountains that you see in the background in almost every shot haven't changed much over the years. And the desert just looks great.
But if you are a Native Man or Woman, this film just might make you sick. Or it may make you laugh. Me? I feel a bit of both.]