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A Man Called Horse [1970]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

American Indians were "cool" in 1970, the year A Man Called Horse made its vigorous, feverishly real, and occasionally shocking debut alongside Little Big Man and Soldier Blue. Unlike the latter two films, however, Horse is less an allegory for Vietnam-era America and more of a vision quest for historical identity. In one of his defining roles, Richard Harris plays an English aristocrat captured by Dakota Sioux in 1825. Over time, he adopts their way of life and eventually becomes tribal leader--but not before undergoing savage initiation rituals, the most famous of which involves being suspended by blades inserted beneath Harris's pectoral muscles. Horse looks clunky, quaint, and inadvertently demeaning in some respects today, but the film's Native-American milieu is at least defined on its own terms, making no concessions to familiar Western conventions. The real draw is Harris, whose performance has a soulful integrity. --Tom Keogh


better than dances with wolves
Review date: 2008-07-22 Rating: 10 out of 10

here harris gives a definitive account of a white man who rises above the squabbles of race and pseudo-culture to become something very noble -a true human being ,
the acting is superb and the authenticity of the indian tribal traditions ,language and culture is par excellence ,
the atmosphere in the praires with the action strife between the europeans ,indians and indian themselves is chilling and immaculate .
a great human drama with great technical finesse and the dvd looks newly restored .
this is richard harris at his best and that is no mean achievement as he is a great naturally gifted actor ,and kevin costner must have seen this to inspire him to make dances with wolves ,though this is much more fascination as both art and entertainment .
i find the rituals and the love affair between him and the indian woman enchanting and the interaction between nature ,humanity and the wildlife is visceral yet so magical -must see .
god bless harris

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Reviews


Intense and intensely unlikable
Review date: 2008-02-03 Rating: 2 out of 10

This odd, overwrought tale of an outsider's savage initiation into a red indian tribe if I'm allowed to say that now, is a pretty dire movie, full of supposed depth and power, but just looking overwrought and overdone, to me. Harris I suppose gives it some star quality, but the whole thing just left me cold, and desperate to turn it off. This type of intense, overwrought analyses of human hardship had become a minor vogue around this period, rather depressingly.

A respectful approach to Indian life
Review date: 2007-09-25 Rating: 10 out of 10

It is one of the rare films about American Indians that is not at all concerned by their extermination by Custer and company. But it is in fact a lot deeper than that. It shows from inside the functioning, the culture, the rites and rituals of Sioux Indians when a white English Lord is captured and turned into a slave for some time. It shows how he manages to become a warrior by killing two Shoshone assailants. Then he marries the sister of the chief and eventually becomes the chief after a war with the Shoshones who attack the village that he defends successfully. And then they move. It shows how hard they are with old women when their sons have disappeared. It shows how hard they are with their warriors who have to go through very cruel rites. Pain is the deliverer of the soul. It shows the basic motivation of wars between tribes: to loot the others, in other words to survive by doing nothing productive but appropriating what is not theirs but the others'. It could be considered as light anthropologically but when it came out in 1970 it was a real revolution in the sympathy and empathy it conveyed about the Indians, but also about the fact that cruelty and pain were never looked for per se but always to prove the courage and the strength of the person. In other words it is the proof that Sioux Indians had a high level of morality based on proved physical endurance and courage. It also proved that love was a real dimension among them governing the relations among fellow human beings in the tribe and between men and women, though their love was not necessarily expressed the way we would romantically adorn it.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines


A man called Horse. Why can i not buy it here?.
Review date: 2003-10-16 Rating: 10 out of 10

One of the best Indian/Western's "EVER".
Critizized as portraying the Indians as cruel and unclean(IN THE 1820'S. I laugh in my shower whenI think about it).
I found this film to be more realistic of the times than most!
Wars between opposing tribes for survival were a fact of life. The Warrior Ritual where Richard Harris is suspended by his pectorals,will make you shiver. When you consider it was boy to manhood in one painful swoop.
The historical events of indian culture where portrayed accurately and with sympathy to the Indians.
Action,Realism and Humour throughout.

Classic tale of how humane a "savage culture" can be
Review date: 2002-11-25 Rating: 10 out of 10

first of all, I wish to pay hommage to a great man who also left us in 2002. My father discovered Richard Harris through this movie, and remained fond of him because of his extraordinary performance in this motion picture. Theis is the story of a man whose predisposition to survive enables him to enter the unknown and defiant world of the Sioux nation, learn about life and the meaning of it, and decide that this is what he had been longing for all his life. With the setting of the inter-nation wars and the threat of the white man to the world as they know it, this picture is a classic tale of instinct, passion, pain and hope.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Judith Anderson
Richard Harris
Corinna Tsopei
Manu Tupou
Jean Gascon

Creators:
Richard Harris (Primary Contributor)
Judith Anderson (Primary Contributor)
Gabriel Torres (Cinematographer)
Robert B. Hauser (Cinematographer)
Michael Kahn (Editor)
Frank Brill (Producer)
Sandy Howard (Producer)
Dorothy M. Johnson (Writer)
Jack DeWitt (Writer)

Director(s):

Recording label: Paramount Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: Paramount Home Entertainment
EAN: 5014437813336
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: PAL, Subtitled,
Release date: 2004-06-07
Number of discs: 1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 109 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1970-05
Language: English (Original Language)

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