RIP Spaghetti Western Screenwriter Luciano Vincenzoni

Luciano Vincenzoni, who wrote (or co-wrote) Sergio Leone's iconic spaghetti westerns “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,”and “For a Few Dollars More” , as well as many other movies, died in Rome on Sept. 22, aged 87.

The New York Times obituary states:

Mr. Vincenzoni contributed to about 70 films, chiefly as a screenwriter or script doctor. His humorous touch could be found in films like “Seduced and Abandoned,” which he made with Pietro Germi in 1964, and “The Best of Enemies,” which Mr. De Laurentiis, the producer, released in the United States in 1962.
But to the general public Mr. Vincenzoni was most associated with“For a Few Dollars More” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” two hugely successful Italian-made westerns directed by Sergio Leone that are now recognized as classics.
“I have written movies that won prizes at Cannes and Venice,” he told Sir Christopher Frayling, a cultural historian and Leone biographer. “These were screenplays for which we suffered on paper for months. Do you know how long it took me to write ‘For a Few Dollars More’? Nine days.”

Read the full obit

Broken Circle Breakdown -- Belgian film set in the European bluegrass scene

For some reason the Belgian movie "The Broken Circle Breakdown" never appeared on my radar. It should have -- it sounds fascinating: a love story/drama set against the background of the European (and particularly Belgian/Dutch) bluegrass scene. Directed by Felix Van Groeningen, it is based on a play by Johan Heldenbergh and Mieke Dobbels, which was published in 2008 in book form.

The movie came out in 2011 and got great reviews, and the sound track can be downloaded from ITunes. The band tours with live concerts in mainly Belgium and the Netherlands.

John Lawless has just written about the movie in Bluegrass Today, as the film, which been shown at festivals, is about to hit selected theatres in the U.S., with screenings at 13 art house cinemas in the south next month and then limited engagements elsewhere in November and December:

The two primary characters in this dark drama share a passion for each other, and for American music. Didier (Johan Heldenbergh) plays banjo in a bluegrass group, and Elise (Veerle Baetens) runs her own tattoo parlor. She sings with the band, and the pair falls hard for each other, a romance that is followed both on and off the stage. Things runs smoothly for these two, until a tragedy tears them apart.
Original music for the film was composed by Bjorn Eriksson, but all the music in the band scenes is performed by the actors, a testament to the active Dutch and Belgian bluegrass scene.

Here's the trailer, with English subtitles.

See U.S. screening dates and more on Bluegrass Today.

RIP Cowboy actor Dale Robertson

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Dale Robertson, an Oklahoma-born actor who specialized in cowboy and western roles in the movies and TV, has died at the age of 89.

I remember him best as the star of the old TV western "Tales of Wells Fargo," from 1957 through 1962.

The obit on CNN states:

The role of a cowboy was not a stretch for Robertson, who grew up on an Oklahoma horse ranch. He and his wife raised horses in Oklahoma until moving to a San Diego suburb last summer, Susan Robertson said. 

Robertson never sought formal acting training, based on advice that he should keep his own personality, according to his biography. 

In the 1966 TV series "Iron Horse," Robertson played a character who won a railway in a high-stakes poker game. 

He hosted, along with Ronald Reagan, episodes of "Death Valley Days" during the 1960s.
Film roles, also mostly Westerns, included "Devil's Canyon," "Sitting Bull," and "Dakota Incident."

Death of Herbert Lom - Karl May movie villain

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I read a lot of obituaries yesterday of the Czech-born actor Herbert Lom, who has died at the age of 95. Almost none of the obits I saw in the English and American media mentioned the fact that Lom -- famed as the hapless  Inspector Dreyfus in the Pink Panther films and known for many other roles -- had a starring role as the villain in the first Karl May film, Der Schatz im Silbersee, or The Treasure of Silver Lake.

In that movie, released in 1962, Lom played the evil Cornel Brinkley -- who murdered for a treasure map and led a band of outlaws against Winnetou and Old Shatterhand....the role enshrined Lom in the canon of Karl May movie villains.

Here's the trailer for the film:

Italy -- A Western Film Festival in Orvieto!

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I can't believe it -- found out that there is going to be a western movie festival this May in Orvieto, the beautiful hill town in central Italy near which I have a house and spend a good chunk of the year.

Western Festival Orvieto will take place May 11, 12 and 13. The program of films to be shown is not yet online, but there is a guest list that includes big names such as Bud Spencer and Franco Nero.

Karl May -- 60th Anniversary of the Karl May Movies!

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

This year does not only mark the 100th anniversary of Karl May's death -- it also marks the 50th anniversary of the first Karl May movies, starring Pierre Brice as Winnetou and Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand.

The first movie in the series was Der Schatz im Silbersee -- The Treasure of Silver Lake -- which came out in 1962. It was shot on various locations in Croatia and starred Herbert Lom as the villainous Cornell Brinkley as well as Brice and Barker.

Here's the trailer in English:

Various events are taking place to celebrate the half-century and there is a web site devoted to the anniversary. Events include a Golden Jubilee celebration in Croatia June 5-9, with Pierre Brice in attendance.

Spain -- Almeria Western Film Festival Coming Up

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Heads up for the Almeria Western Film Festival, the first European festival dedicated exclusively to the Western genre, coming up at Almeria on the south coast of Spain Sept. 8-11. It will be showing recent Westerns from a vareity of countries as well as a retropsective dedicated to the Spaghetti Western, which will be accompanied by panel discussions.

You can see trailers for the films to be shown on the web site.




Some of the festival events will be taking place in Fort Bravo -- a wild west theme parkin the desert, 25 kms from Almeria, that encompasses various stage sets used in the filming of European-made westerns.

FORT BRAVO is a place of dreams, the movie set of hundreds and hundreds of films produced by people from all over the five continents. The movie studios of Texas Hollywood in Tabernas are like a Mecca for film fans; located in the only desert in Europe, reality and fantasy intermingle, creating a unique, unforgettable and inimitable atmosphere.

Interesting and useful blog about European Western Movies

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Hey -- I just came across the blog Westerns... all'Italiana -- which dedicated to "the preservation, investigation and all things related to European films and personnel involved with the western genre."

Great stuff! (I just snagged from it in my previous post the interview with Gojko Mitic.)

Winnetou et al -- Interview with Gojko Mitic, European western star

Gojko Mitic as Winnetou. Bad Segeberg festival 2003. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber


The blog westernsallitaliana, which is devoted to western movies, posts an interview with Gojko Mitic, the legendary Yugoslav-born actor who played the Indian hero in East German Defa movies and also, after the fall of the Wall, played Winnetou at the Bad Segeberg Karl May Festival.

He was immensely popular -- when I saw him perform as Winnetou at Bad Segeberg in 2003, the crowd chanted "Goj-ko! Goj-ko!" when he appeared and surged forward to shake hands and get his autograph.

Gojko Mitic in the DEFA film  Die Söhne der großen Bärin (The Sons of the Great Bear)

Mitic, now 70, was taking part in a film festival in Linz Austria this month where some of the 12 DEFA "Indianer" films were shown. The Austrian News Agency APA conducted the interview with the "Winnetou of the East."

APA: You are known as the "Winnetou of the East", is this a compliment?

Gojko Mitic: I don’t mind, because I'm already used to it. When the GDR still existed, they gave me a nickname: I was called "Indian chief" because I starred in the DEFA films as different Indians. Then when I appeared in Bad Segeberg for 15 years and 1,400 performances at the Karl May Festival, the writers like you, gave me that name.

APA : "Red Westerns" are something completely different than the American Western.

Mitic : Of course, I grew up with the US-Western. I can remember that we were all glad when John Wayne appeared. But I never wanted to be an Indian, because they were "evil". In retrospect, I realize that we have done them wrong. We were the ones who came to their country and decimated them. These Indians, who I played did not meet the American stereotype. It was researched more at the DEFA films, they were stories of real Indians retold. These films were for me, a bit of an attempt to correct the story.

 Continue reading HERE

Funnily enough, when I actually met Gojko Mitic -- at the Karl May Festival in Radebeul, Germany a few years ago -- he was dressed as a cowboy. Dana Weber (who has done here PhD dissertation on Karl May Festivals) and I interviewed him -- I'll see if I can find the transcription and post it.

Me with Gojko Mitic (cowboy style) and Dana Weber at the Karl May festival in Radebeul.

Movies -- What is a Western? Off geographic topic, but great film series on the Western

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

What is a Western? The Autry National Center in Los Angeles is hosting a great-looking film series on the Western that will explore the development of the movie genre, locating it in the broader social and cultural context and linking it to other pop culture genres.

What is a Western? Film Series

The Autry National Center announces the creation of a new film series that explores how movies have both mirrored and influenced larger social and cultural issues in the American West. It will challenge popular notions of what a Western is by showcasing various genres that can arguably be considered Western. All films will be tied to the Autry’s collection and current exhibitions, providing the audience a unique perspective on the objects and artifacts as they are viewed through an interpretive cinematic lens. Jeffrey Richardson, Associate Curator of Western History and Popular Culture, will offer key insights into each film before and after the screenings.
Other genres will include film noir, focusing on industrialization and urbanization in the mid-20th century; beach films from the 1950s and ‘60s, highlighting the youth revolution and social changes; urban police films from the 1970s and ‘80s, exploring the movement away from traditional Westerns in rural settings to urban locations; and space films, which incorporate the same conventions of traditional Westerns and launch them into outer space.

Movies -- True Grit, a Western, leads off Berlin Film Festival

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

What is it with people who keep getting surprised that westerns can -- and often are/have been -- good? And not just good, but worthy of viewing by those who do not live where the antelopes roam (or roamed). I liked and enjoyed (but didn't love) True Grit -- which is apparently heading now to be the highest grossing western in history.

The movie, nominated for multiple Oscars, opened the Berlin Film Festival this week -- just days after the  annual Country Music Messe (and rival Country Music Meeting) took place in Berlin -- festivals where, in at atmosphere scorned or ridiculed by many of those people who enjoy True Grit, thousands of fans dress up in cowboy gear to hear performances by dozens of (loud) bands.

BBC runs a nice interview with Jeff Bridges, the star of True Grit, who makes no apology for liking adopting a cowboy guise. His part in the movie -- one-eyed Rooster Cogburn -- was made famous by John Wayne in the original True Grit movie in 1969.

Bridges was more concerned about filling some bigger boots - those of his father, Lloyd Bridges, who acted in many Hollywood Westerns.

"I love dressing up as a cowboy," he says. "It reminds me of my childhood - my father was in so many of those films and I'd remember him coming through the door, in his boots and hat.

"He'd let me wear his things, and I'd call up my friends to come and play."

          [...]

Bridges dismisses the idea he has helped make the genre fasionable again.

"I think these things are cyclical and the Western is just part of American history and could never really go away," he says.

"I think this is more to do with the Coen brothers and what they will do with a script.

"Also it's unusual, because there's not many hard-hitting films with a 14-year-old girl who is the central character. None of us can quite believe how well it's done though," he adds.

As it stands, True Grit could become the highest grossing Western ever. That should remove Jeff Bridges from the shadow of even the Duke himself.

Western Movie Favorites

By Ruth Ellen Gruber



American National Public Radio (NPR) runs a "western starter kit for the movie-going tenderfoot" -- a list of key western movies selected by correspondent Bob Mondello.

I settled on five films representing different styles — Shane (1953), a classic traditional Western; The Searchers (1956), John Ford's complex epic about the treatment of Native Americans; The Wild Bunch (1969), Sam Peckinpah's revisionist Vietnam-era look at violence; Blazing Saddles (1974), Mel Brooks' romp through Western clichés; and Unforgiven (1992), a Clint Eastwood riff on disillusioned old-timers that's often referred to as a eulogy for the movie Western.

Listeners were asked to add their favorites..... Me? I would add The Frisco Kid, Limonade Joe -- and maybe a Winnetou movie....and a Gene Autry or two....

Movies -- New Canadian Documentary on Hollywood Indians

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

There's a new (or newish -- I think it came out last year) documentary out about the depiction of Native Americans in the movies. It's called Reel Injun: On the Trail of the Hollywood Indian. It's made by a Cree filmmaker with the (iconic? ironic?) name of Neil Diamond.

The movie goes over territory treated in several books, including the landmark "Playing Indian" by Philip J. Deloria.

From first glance at the web site and trailers, it looks interesting (and fun) but seems not to touch the important depiction of Native Americans in the West German Winnetou movies -- or the East German Indianer films (or any other European contruct).

The National Film Board of Canada, which sponsored the movie, has a more sober trailer:

Interestingly -- the National Film Board also sponsored an earlier documentary -- "If Only I Were an Indian"  (1995)-- that looks at Native American hobbyists in the Czech Republic.

Imaginary Wild West: A Point of Origin..... (and a childhood heart-throb)

Photo: http://www.republicpictures75th.com/

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Yesterday, I went to the festivities celebrating the 75th anniversary of Republic Pictures, the old movie studio that produced Gene Autry and Roy Rogers movies, as well a host of other cinematic B-westerns -- and thus and major point of origin in the creation and marketing of the imaginary Wild West.

Founded in 1935 by Herbert J. Yates, Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities. Republic exploded into national prominence with its focus in westerns, movie serials and B-films emphasizing mystery and action, the staples of Saturday afternoon matinees. The studio launched the careers of John Wayne, Gene Autry, Rex Allen, Roy Rogers, and rocketed serials like The Adventures of Captain Marvel and Commando Cody: Sky Marshal of the Universe into the public imagination. Notable Republic Pictures include Under Western Stars (1938), Flying Tigers (1942), Macbeth (1948), Sands of Iwo Jima (1949), The Red Pony (1949), The Quiet Man (1952) and Johnny Guitar (1954).

It was a sort of fair/festival set up at the studio, now CBS studios, in Studio City. Oddly, there seemed to be very little publicity for the event, and it was even hard to find where to enter -- there did not seem to be any signage pointing the way.

It was a brutally hot day -- 104 degrees F -- and that may have deterred people from attending: I was surprised at how empty it was (though the air-conditioned panel discussions and memorabilia/autograph hall were crowded).

The actor Hugh O'Brian (AKA TV's  Wyatt Earp) waits for fans to buy his autograph or picture. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Much of it reminded me of western festivals in Europe -- though on a smaller scale. There were people dressed up in old time western costumes, and  stands selling western goods and duds

Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

And a couple of country-western bands

Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

My biggest thrill, though it was sort of poignant, too, was to come across Hugh O'Brian, the actor who portrayed Wyatt Earp in the icon TV show of my childhood, sitting in the autograph/memorabilia hall, selling his autograph, autographed pictures and other material. He was a Wild West hero of mine, and it was all I could do to stop myself from bursting out into the Wyatt Earp theme song...."Long may his fame and long may his glory and long may his story be told!"

O'Brian is about 85 now, and looks great; but he was surrounded by the glory of his swashbuckling youth, and I find myself rather squeamish at the sight of one-time stars, in their "twilight years", selling their signature for $20 a pop. Of course, why shouldn't they?  (O'Brian also has a web site where he sells memorabilia and also offers to make personal phone calls.)

Hugh O'Brian. Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

Country Indian - Indian Country (Cowboy) -- More on Super Cowboy

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

The new Indian Cowboy movie "Super Cowboy", the first "Kollywood" (Tamil film industry) western in nearly 40 years, continues to get press in the Indian media. In an interview published HERE, the movie's star. Raghava Lawrence, talks about "authenticity" in the film, which was directed by Chimbu (also spelt as Simbu) Devan.

“I was keen to work on this project right from the time Chimbu narrated the story. He was well prepared and had even taken a few photographs of the characters in their complete make up to give me a feel of the film. Kollywood has seen a cowboy film after 38 years and he had gone that extra mile to make it look authentic. Right from the get-up to style to dialogues, I loved them all,” Lawrence said to a leading English daily.

You can check out the movie's sound track HERE -- the Theme Song attempts to capture the flavor of old Hollywood westerns. Sort of

Cowboys in India -- Another Movie Report

Picture from Indiaglitz.com

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

Here's another of my sporadic links on Cowboy Movies in India, specifically in the Tamil film industry in southern India. This time it's to an article at the Indiaglitz web site, reviewing a movie called "Super Cowboy," by the director Chimbu Deven (also written Simbudevan) -- which I posted about a few months ago, when it was in production. It is the first Tamil cowboy flic in something like 36 years.

‘Super Cowboy’ is the rebirth of the cowboy films in Tamil cinema, a movie that is a mixed bag of entertainment.

Hollywood is a kingpin in the cowboy genre, with a lot of heroes in fact carving a niche for themselves including Gregory Peck, Clint Eastwood and a host of other cowboy heroes. ‘Super Cowboy’ is an inspired movie of one such page from the big book of cowboy history. Firstly, credit and two thumbs up to director Chimbu Deven to make such a movie that needs a lot of effort and specially attention to detail. He has brought out a wholesome entertainment.

Starting the movie with the narration from the director himself about the evolution of cowboy culture in the world, he gives examples of different cowboys in different countries with conclusion of the narration with cowboys in India, in particular south India. Here is introduced Jaishankarpuram, a village that has a lot of cowboys (even cow woman) and horses! Jaishankarpuram is in the clutches of the villain Nasser as Nalla Trachu who lives in the ‘Iron Fort’ in USApuram. Nalla Trachu also dictates terms on five other villages. He is a wicked man, mind you! With only one eye and the other being a dummy!

There's fuller description of the film HERE.

WATCH THE TRAILER!

Meanwhile, Simbudevan is quoted as saying

“We chose 18th century subject and bringing out the film as a comedy adventure. We are showing Red Indians in a never before manner. We prepared a fantastic set with the help of 300 workers in Kerala on Hollywood style. It is the biggest set in the entire film industry’s history in India. We also shot the film in Thenkasi, Thada, Madhya Pradesh, Rayachoti, Sathunur, Bengaluru, Pune, Nagpur, Palghat, Amba Samudram and Pondicherry. Ours is the first unit to shoot in Kandi Canal in Kandikota of Vijayanagar dynasty. We took several risky shots in this 30-foot depth canal. We gave training to all the artistes in horse riding.”

And the India Times runs a story about the female lead in the movie, the actress Lakshmi Rai, commenting on her role:

“A cowboy film is being made in Kollywood after a very long time and I’m sure audiences will find it refreshing. Actually, I wasn’t really sure how it would fare at the box office when I first heard the script. But, the research that director Simbudevan had done on the subject assured me that it would turn out to be very interesting and fresh,” says an excited Lakshmi.

USA - Movie cowboy stamps go on sale April 17

 

The new US postage stamps honoring western heroes of the silver screen go on sale Saturday, and there will be ceremonies and celebrations in several places around the country.

The stamps honor the movie cowboy heroes William S. Hart, Tom Mix, Gene Autry and Roy Rogers.

All four of the honorees had an enthusiastic following outside the US as well as at home.

Hart and Mix were before my time. But Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were childhood favorites of mine, and I still love their movies, which I now watch on DVD --  and I've got Gene's CDs on my IPod. Autry of course went on to become a fabulously successful businessman. In 2004, I had a visiting scholar fellowship to the Autry National Center/Institute for the Study of the American West, a wonderful institution in LA that Autry was instrumental in founding.

One of the ceremonies celebrating the stamps will take place at the Autry -- see the program by clicking HERE.

This is the first time Gene Autry has been featured on a postage stamp, and the Museum of the American West plans to recognize this important milestone with a lobby exhibition that will remain up through Founder’s Day in October. The cameo will include artifacts relating to all four cowboys, focusing on different aspects of their illustrious careers.  Gene Autry was a success in entertainment and business, and he always made time for his fans. He toured across North America, giving children of all ages the chance to see their favorite cowboy in person. Items on display will include a child mannequin with a Gene Autry Official Ranch Outfit and a Gene Autry Monark bicycle.

Other ceremonies will take place at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Norman, Oklahoma and at the William S. Hart Park and Museum in Newhall, California. Maybe elsewhere, too!

India -- Cowboy Hats Are the Rage

Photo: IndiaGlitz

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I love stories about the Indian "Cowboy" films and embrace of Wild West trappings by "Kollywood" (southern India's Tamil-language  film industry) and the vast subcontinent as a whole: they demonstrate the universality of the American foundation saga and the global embrace of the mythology and its trappings.... Here's another. According to a web site called IndiaGlitz, cowboy hats are currently all the rage  -- "that essential Prop" even in movies that do not have a cowboy or western theme.

Its retro mode in Kollywood and guess what is the most happening ‘property’ our stars are using, eh sorry, wearing!

Call it the trend or a fashion statement - our heroes are wearing the Cowboy hats., more often than not All you Tamil Film loyalists, rewind to times of Jai Shankar, possibly one of the first cowboys of Kollywood, He wore it for his most coveted cowboy role and then continuing his legacy was Rajinikanth in ‘Thaai Meedhu Sathyam'.

Well those were the days when stories were given the importance and costumes were naturally imbibed in the story. And now, Cowboy hats everywhere. The hero wears the cowboy hat and dances with the heroine in hilly areas, or you see him wear the hat as a ‘prop’ (short for property) and smoke a puff, typically wild... wild... west! [...] 

Cowboy hats are a style symbol. Hats have always been an accessory to mankind, but as a property in movies, especially songs, cowboy hats fill the blank. Spot the actors, be it the hero, the heroine or even the villain in the movies with the cowboy hats on, in upcoming releases. The tradition has been continuing for ages now and just like sky, the hats are here to stay. At least in Tamil Cinema.

Read full story

 I have posted in the past about some of the films and actors mentioned in this story -- such as the recent movie Quickgun Murugun.  I know very little of this subculture -- but the pictures and description of the film plots are wild (west)!

 Photo: IndiaGlitz

Avatar - Dancing With Wolves - Sitting Bull and His World

 Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

By Ruth Ellen Gruber

I am far from the only person to compare James Cameron's epic Avatar to Kevin Costner's epic "Dances with Wolves." (Nor am I the first to see in Avatar the influence of Star Trek or  Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian series -- several books of which I have just read.) But I may be one of the few who followed up seeing Avatar with a visit to a museum exhibition about the destruction of  traditional Native American life on the American plains: an exhibit on Sitting Bull and His World at the Museum of Ethnology in Vienna.

As many have noted, the plot of Avatar  follows that of Dances with Wolves in a number of ways -- most simply put, a battered "white" soldier charged with subduing an indigenous population takes up the cause of the people he is supposed to suppress and (in part thanks to the love of a woman) eventually "goes native." This storyline has made Dances with Wolves very popular with American Indian hobbyists in Germany and elsewhere in Europe -- in effect, the Kevin Costner character accomplishes what would be the ideal for many of them.

(More people today are probably familiar with Dances with Wolves than with the Burroughs' Martian (or Barsoomian) series, written around the time of World War One -- but these books, too, deal with a battered soldier, in this case Civil War veteran John Carter, who loves a local princess and becomes part of an indigenous people (Martians). Apparently James Cameron alluded to Burroughs' works as an inspiration for Avatar -- and even visually I noticed Burroughs touches in some of the creatures created to populate Avatar's planet Pandora.)

I saw Avatar in Vienna over the weekend and the next day we to the the Sitting Bull exhibit (which is up until March 15). It uses photographs and objects to tell the life and afterlife of Sitting Bull, whose image remains one of the visual icons of the West, just as his story has become legend.

Here's how the museum describes him:

Sitting Bull – freedom fighter, „holy man“, rabble-rouser and troublemaker, poet and painter, media star. 

It was, of all days, July 4, 1876 – the day America celebrated the centenary of her independence - when a dismayed public first learned about the “victor of the Battle of Little Bighorn”, who had annihilated the 7th U.S. Cavalry Regiment and killed its commander, the popular hero, George Armstrong Custer. Since then, deeply contradictory images of Tataka Iyotanka, or “Sitting Bull”, have been published and propagated. „He never told the truth if a lie served him better“ claimed one of his earliest biographers in a book published shortly after December 15, 1890, the day on which the Hunkpapa chief was shot while resisting arrest by members of the Indian Police. At about the same time, however, a contemporary described him as the „oracle of secrets and of knowledge that remains hidden from the masses, even from other chiefs who listened to his words and respected his authority as the highest and final expression of wisdom”. Even his own people were deeply divided; they relished the glory of his martial exploits but shuddered at his familiarity with spiritual powers. Eventually, however, most rejected his policy of resisting the all-powerful United States.  

Today, the man who in 1884 criticised Capitalism („The white man knows how to produce goods but not how to distribute them“) is celebrated as a model for heroic management strategies. His spiritual closeness to nature and his anti-Americanism make him the precursor of every alternative way of life. His posthumous popularity has turned him into a successful advertising vehicle for a wide range of products.  

Sitting Bull was one of the most frequently depicted „Native Americans“. The club he holds in one of his final photographs identifies him as an unreformed warrior, the crucifix around his neck as a candidate for imminent conversion; his sunglasses document the partial paralysis of the face that increasingly handicapped him; his many different head-coverings reflect his many different roles. His public face suggests lofty gravity or half-disguised anger, but his family photographs show a smiling Sitting Bull, a man who liked women and loved his children and grandchildren.

More than anyone else, Sitting Bull personifies the contradictions inherent in our Western conceptions of “Native Americans”. He is both a tragic symbol of a doomed world and an inspirational figure for alternative ways-of-life in the post-industrial era.

Not to mention a T-shirt:

Photo (c) Ruth Ellen Gruber

PS -- Filming is under way on a new movie based on the first book in Burroughs' Martian series!

Background to Indian Cowboy Movie

I posted recently about a new Indian (subcontinent) cowboy flick -- Quick Gun Murugun.

Here's an article about the background to the character, by Anindita Ghose: "How the iconic dosa-eating superhero, Quick Gun Murugun, broke out of his shelved television avatar on to the big screen." The article also provides biographical info and an interview with the director. (The photo is from livemint.com)

Seems Quick Gun Murugun started out as promotional spots for a new TV channel.

The promos were a comic juggernaut. Featuring an over-the-top character called Murugun fashioned on B-grade Tamil film heroes, they were designed to counter similar MTV spots, albeit with an Indian flavour.

Telugu actor Rajendra Prasad plays Murugun on the big screen. A veteran of over 200 Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films, the 57-year-old portrays the swashbuckling hero with alarming comic effectiveness. The story revolves around an epic battle between vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism wherein gunslinging Murugun fights against all odds to prevent his nemesis, Rice Plate Reddy, from opening a non-vegetarian Udupi joint, McDosa. The film also marks the return of actor Rambha (Mango Dolly), back after a sabbatical and donning a stunning blonde wig that the producers claim cost Rs15 lakh (it was sourced from Los Angeles). Other characters, such as Gunpowder, Masala News Reporter and Locket Lover, complete the array of Tamil movie clichés.

Read full article