The Only Good Indian

2009
6.6| 1h54m| en| More Info
Released: 01 December 2009 Released
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Synopsis

Set in Kansas during the early 1900s, a teen-aged Native American boy is taken from his family and forced to attend a distant Indian "training" school to assimilate into White society. When he escapes to return to his family, Sam Franklin, a bounty hunter of Cherokee descent, is hired to find and return him to the institution. Franklin, a former Indian scout for the U.S. Army, has renounced his Native heritage and has adopted the White Man's way of life, believing it's the only way for Indians to survive. Along the way, a tragic incident spurs Franklin's longtime nemesis, the famous "Indian Fighter" Sheriff Henry McCoy, to pursue both Franklin and the boy.

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Reviews

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation
InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Helllins It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.
Tayloriona Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.
beorhhouse As films go, this one is excellent. How many would think DRACULA could be applied to a story about American Indians being tricked and massacred by Europeans. This film gives part of the story. And, I'm not "White" or Indian--half of both, English and Cherokee/Creek, but I understand trespass (sin) and how to escape (via the Sacrifice of the Wisdom of God come in human form). Too trippy for you? Then don't watch this film, which is almost as trippy. If David Lynch made a film about Indians... you get the picture.
santasa99 In The Only Good Indian we peek at this particular fragment of US (and Canadian) history from First Nations point of view, and follow a tale which is just a part of the voluminous story of how Impostor Americans took place of Real Americans, after committing genocide, unprecedented in human history - Europeans exterminated possibly up to 80 million (some estimate even up to 100 million) of indigenous Americans (Real American), from Alaska to Tierra del Fuego, since 1492. Plot is set in US, sometime in late 19th century or early 1900's, which makes it even harder to swallow, although with the amount and level of racism, exceptionalism, Islamophobia, and all kinds of chauvinism and discriminations in Americas today, especially in US, this statement might be redundant or dubious, maybe even unnecessary. On the other hand reaction of certain individuals here and elsewhere, placed as reviews and/or comments, are truly appalling, no mater how predictable and expected. Bottom line, the film taking point of view which is rare in American cinematography - invisible people's point of view, which shed light on inconvenient history and criminal past.
ejhutchaz What I have to say may be considered a "spoiler" if it deters anyone from watching this film. As a long time western movie fan, I always am first in line to view those films which attempt to give an honest (non-Hokeywood) portrayal of the Native American, and their struggle to survive the ruthless wanton destruction of their culture. I wanted to see this movie after viewing the promos, and also because I am a longtime fan of Wes Studi, who has brought a strong integrity to every performance. This film is certainly no "Dances With Wolves", and did NOT, IMHO, live up to its potential, or my expectations, because it couldn't make up its mind what it wanted to be - a cutting edge film about the way Native American children were brutally treated at the white man's "schools", - or just another hokey, cartoonish "Chase and Shoot-em-up", with a dime novel lawman played over the top by J. Kenneth Campbell. Unfortunately it tried to be both, with the "dime novel" side dominating, and in the process seriously diluted the impact it could've had. I will say that Winter Fox Frank was excellent in his part as the runaway boy, and Wes Studi did the best he could with a part, and a script, that was NOT up to his level of talent. Watch it if you must, but know it's 115 minutes of your life you will never get back!!
James Boyd I had the dubious pleasure of catching this title at the Santa Fe Film festival. I'm baffled as to how this has a 7.5 rating. I wasn't going to say anything until I heard this won "best picture" at the festival.This movie is essentially a native American / first American revenge story; its didactic goals are to remind us of the atrocities committed against the Indians by the federal government and people working under its tacit permission and to re-figure the typical "wild west" narrative into something that actually does justice to the story of Native Americans. This is accomplished by a kind of "modernization" of the plot setting: The protagonist, Sam (played by Wes Studi) is a roving bounty hunter who captures Indian runaways from a nearby Indian School. This movie has some heavy political undertone. I grew up near "Indian School" road without the slightest notion of what the name of the road was derived from. This movie's job, then is to make a kind of "Indian Drama" in the story of the escapees of the school, their interactions with Sam, and their ultimate destiny. But also, it is there to portray the horrors that Indians faced in early-20th century America, horrors that are too often missing from Americans' self-knowledge.These two drives end up pulling the film apart. But all of the above was written as if the movie above actually had any idea what they were trying to say with the film. It's running length (114 minutes) is ridiculous for a film of this subject and budget, the acting abysmal, the story banal.

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