Confrontation and Reconciliation: Transformation and Renovation of the Portrayal of American Indians in Hollywood Western
The image of the American Indians as shadowy and evil forces is deeply ingrained in the white American psyche and it helps shape the delineation and portrayal of American Indian characters in the early Hollywood western genre. American Indians in the early westerns are stereotypically depicted as threatening and destructive, posing the obstacles in the way of white American conquest and expansion of the frontier. D.W. Griffiths Battle of Elderbush Gulch sets the tone of the traditional narrative of Hollywood western by winding up the film with the American cavalry rescuing the white settlers from the demonic threat of native Indians. But with the American society bombarded with racial problems and tensions, some directors attempt to break the biased and distorted depiction of Indian characters. Delmer Davess Broken Arrow is a good example to redress the issue of racial prejudice and tolerance through the confrontation of two cultures. By the late 1960s, American society is deeply shaken by such events as Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War and feminism, auteur directors like Arthur Penn begin to redefine and reshape the American Indians. Little Big Man is one of the films that shift the gears to portray American Indians from a sympathetic perspective. Since then, more and more films begin to engage the issues of the confrontation of white and Indian cultures and the conventional image and depiction of American Indians are turned on their head. Hollywood film industry is given more space to tackle the theme of the treatment of the American Indians. The 1998 film Smoke Signals marks a gigantic stride in taking a serious stock of the American Indians identity by giving a detailed characterization of two indigenous people on their way toward the acquisition of selfidentity. Through this essay it is hoped that a more truthful depiction of the American Indians can be restored and cultural barricades and prejudices in Hollywood film discourse can be obliterated to achieve a vision and possibility of racial reconciliation.
Chi-Chung Chia
Department of Applied Foreign Languages,National Taiwan University of Science and Technology
国际会议
2009 International Conference on Applied Linguistics & Language Teaching(2009应用语言学暨语言教学国际研讨会)
台湾
英文
66-75
2009-04-01（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）