Massai

A film I expected to be a fairly ordinary western, but instead, I got an intriguing take on fighting for survival and the conditions in which it happens. Okay, it’s not overwhelmingly strong overall, but the desire to live presented here, a desire that goes beyond everything, is a testament to how much we should cherish freedom and never submit to anything else. But there's still that question mark. What, in the end, can an individual do against a group? (27.11.2013)

In the ancient times of American cinema, white actors painted with shoe polish appeared in roles of black characters. Fortunately, during the filming of Aldrich's film, this was no longer the case, and yet for the American studio, it was unimaginable to entrust the roles of Native Americans to actual Native Americans. Therefore, the beautifully blue-eyed Lancaster took on the lead role, along with his partner, a former beauty queen and the ideal prototype of a white beauty for fashion magazines. I can't help it, but no matter how much Apache tries to be progressive within its time and ideological framework, and how it tries to present the protagonist and his ethnicity in a better light, the film perfectly falls into the era of the 50s, and seeks to solve the conflict of clashing indigenous culture with the rapidly spreading Euro-American civilization through enlightening the native population and their adaptation to the skills and abilities of white men. The film comes across as naive, and schematic, and some dialogues are truly bad. Maybe it's just my problem because I associate Lancaster with a completely different type of character, but I simply didn't believe in him as an Indian. Overall impression: 40%. (28.02.2018)