One of the last silent westerns and William Hart's swan song, "Tumbleweeds" is about the settlement of the 'old west' and the end of the (largely mythical) 'cowboy' way of life. The closing shot of drifting tumbleweeds being stopped by barb wire fence pretty much sums up the film. William Hart is 'Don Carver', a drifter, a 'tumbleweed', who gets caught up in the 1893 Cherokee Strip land rush along with his sidekick, 'Kentucky Rose' (Lucian Littlefield). Typical of silent films, the acting is somewhat overly dramatic at times (except for po-faced Hart) but otherwise the film has held up remarkably well and, to some degree, reflects modern sensibilities more than many of the myriad westerns that followed (for example: the Indians Carver encounters are his friends and there are African Americans and capable, independent women in the race for homesteads). There are a number of very effective scenes, such as the countdown to the "maddest stampede in American History', the stampede itself, and shots paralleling Hart riding at full gallop that must have been challenging to obtain. The film is also quite comic at times, notably the ol' widder women checking out Kentucky's butt when he bends over or tough-guy Hart's faintness around women and his solution to a persistent cowlick before going a'courtin'. The biggest downside to the version I watched (on the "Silver Screen Classics" channel) was the score, which (IMO) was often intrusive and inappropriate to the scene. I don't know if other versions are available. Score aside, the film is well worth watching for its own sake, as well as for its place in cinematic history. Followed six years later by "Cimarron", a similar retelling of the great land race that was the only Western to win a Best Picture Oscar until "Dances with Wolves" in 1990.
Review of Tumbleweeds
