Even at this early juncture in film history, the theme of culture clash and old tradition giving way to new may have been old hat. And yet for a complete story to be told from an all Indian point of view was no doubt new then, and is even rare today. A lot of credit goes to the makers of this pioneer effort.
The story opens with an excerpt from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's THE SONG OF HIAWATHA, "May this merciless magician...". Red Moon greets his son back from the white man's medical college. Next scene shows a woman(Mona Darkfeather) seeing in her mind's eye what her sweetheart will look like upon his return. Her image is a traditional one, with long hair and typical Indian garb. In reality he meets her wearing both a black suit & derby with short cut hair. He doesn't make a big hit with his tribe either. To make matters worse, he latter refuses to join a war council, and when Mona offers him a rifle to take, he rejects it! Soon after a fever breaks out among the people. All begin to leave to avoid the sickness with the old medicine man unable to cope with the large scale outbreak. Before all are gone, however, the new medicine man puts his outside education to practical use. Meanwhile, at the tribes new location, Roaring Lion's daughter is stricken, and even with just one person, the resident medicine man is not getting results. Will the new kid on the block turn out to be the hero? Except for an early superimposed scene showing Mona Darkfeather's thoughts, the whole movie is very basic filming, with no close-ups at all, mostly just medium long shots. It doesn't seem as much direction was given, with the story rather than the acting receiving all the attention. The only non Indian characters are those who convey the new medicine man by stagecoach to the nearest town. Only one person is seen at the drop off point, and his clothing looks rather out of place.
The print quality of the film reviewed was only fair. RT: 13.5 min.
The story opens with an excerpt from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's THE SONG OF HIAWATHA, "May this merciless magician...". Red Moon greets his son back from the white man's medical college. Next scene shows a woman(Mona Darkfeather) seeing in her mind's eye what her sweetheart will look like upon his return. Her image is a traditional one, with long hair and typical Indian garb. In reality he meets her wearing both a black suit & derby with short cut hair. He doesn't make a big hit with his tribe either. To make matters worse, he latter refuses to join a war council, and when Mona offers him a rifle to take, he rejects it! Soon after a fever breaks out among the people. All begin to leave to avoid the sickness with the old medicine man unable to cope with the large scale outbreak. Before all are gone, however, the new medicine man puts his outside education to practical use. Meanwhile, at the tribes new location, Roaring Lion's daughter is stricken, and even with just one person, the resident medicine man is not getting results. Will the new kid on the block turn out to be the hero? Except for an early superimposed scene showing Mona Darkfeather's thoughts, the whole movie is very basic filming, with no close-ups at all, mostly just medium long shots. It doesn't seem as much direction was given, with the story rather than the acting receiving all the attention. The only non Indian characters are those who convey the new medicine man by stagecoach to the nearest town. Only one person is seen at the drop off point, and his clothing looks rather out of place.
The print quality of the film reviewed was only fair. RT: 13.5 min.
