Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian is a documentary film which premiered in 2009.
The purpose of this film is to explore how Native Americans (previously known as American Indians) have been portrayed by Hollywood during the last 100 years.
Here is some basic information about this film:
** Director: Neil Diamond (but not the well-known musician!)
** Co-directors: Catherine Bainbridge & Jeremiah Hayes
** Writers: Neil Diamond, Catherine Bainbridge & Jeremiah Hayes
** Run time: 88 minutes
The main title is a pun and deliberately misspelled.
It could have been The Real Indian.
But it is not.
Instead of “Real” meaning true, we have the word “Reel” which is used about a reel of film.
Instead of the correct word “Indian” we have the misspelled “Injun” as this word is pronounced by some people.
In this film, director Neil Diamond goes on a journey across the United States in search of the real Indian.
He wants to discover how Native Americans have been portrayed in Hollywood movies during the last 100 years.
The image has changed several times, as we learn while watching this film.
Reel Injun is composed of three elements:
(1) Clips from movies which have been released during the last 100 years
(2) Interviews with some of the people the director meets on his journey across the United States
(3) Clips where we see the director as he makes his journey across the United States, from the cold arctic north (where he lives) to the hot deserts and the plains of the US mainland
What do reviewers say about this film?
Here are the results of three review aggregators:
** 63 percent = Meta
** 75 percent = IMDb
** 85 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the audience)
** 88 percent = Rotten Tomatoes (the critics)
On Amazon there are at the moment more than 100 ratings of this product, more than 75 with reviews.
The average rating is 4.7 stars which corresponds to a rating of 94 percent.
If you ask me, the rating on Meta is too low, while the ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and Amazon are too high.
The rating on IMDb seems to be appropriate. This rating corresponds to (almost) four stars on Amazon.
Reel Injun is an interesting and informative film, which deserves a rating of four stars (80 percent).
REFERENCES
The State of Native America:
Genocide, Colonization and Resistance
By M. Annette Jaimes
1992
Great Speeches by Native Americans
Edited by Bob Blaisdell
A Little Matter of Genocide:
Holocaust and the Denial in the Americas,
1492 to the Present
By Ward Churchill
2001
Real Indians:
Identity and the Survival of Native America
By Eva Marie Garroutte
2003
The Canary Effect
A documentary film which premiered in 2006
Unworthy Republic:
The Dispossession of
Native Americans and
the Road to Indian territory
By Claudio Saunt
2020
Picturing Indians:
Native Americans in Film, 1941-1960
By Liza Black
2022
*****
Reel Injun:
On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian
A documentary film
which premiered in 2009
*****
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