[Inspector Abberline]

A Man Called Horse (1970)

When released A Man Called Horse must of seemed fairly authentic compared to past portrayals of American Indians on film thus far.It seems later on the film has been criticised mainly for using to many white actors in the roles of the leading native American roles. Well 40 odd years down the road and the film still holds up,being fairly impartial and not really taking either side,it could of been whole lot worse in its portrayal of the Sioux tribe and its people. Although the story itself does seem pretty far fetched by any ones standards. But what does make the film seem plausible is the portrayal by Richard Harris as John Morgan, a foppish aristocrat travelling across America and shooting birds,something which he could of stayed at home in England and done. Any how captured by the Sioux Indians and renamed horse.Richard Harris is pretty much humiliated and treated more like a dog than a horse,although I do not expect A Man Called Dog made for a great film title. It does seem a bit far fetched that a man who is basically a slave,would be able to prove himself a warrior,marry the Chiefs sister and then become the tribe's leader. Of course the film is famous for the scene where Harris is being initiated by being lifted up in the air by having hooks inserted into his chest,painful to say the least,and it has to be said it all looks very realistic. The trouble is every thing is very convenient,in order for Harris to communicate with the tribe he needs a translator to help him,hey presto enter Jean Gascon as Baptiste a French half breed who also speaks English. The film itself look great and there are some really nice shots,although there does seem to be a lot of stock footage of animals fighting and running and frolicking. While certainly not a bad film,and it has to be said Richard Harris is superb as always,I just felt it maybe tried to hard to be taken serious and worthy.