Comata, the Sioux (1909) User Reviews

Mixing Races

[boblipton · 6/10 · 29 September 2018]

Sioux brave James Kirkwood is sweet on Sioux maiden Marion Leonard, but she's sweet on White Man Arthur Johnson. Soon they have a child, but Kirkwood keeps an eye on matters. Eventually Johnson goes courting a White woman, Linda Arvidson...

It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with silent movies that D.W. Griffith was a racist by modern standards. What may surprise people who stop with that appraisal is that he did not hold the White race blameless. Here it is Johnson (who offers a performance that looks like a modern, surly adolescent out to shock his parents), who behaves badly throughout.

Mr. Kirkwood had quite a career in the movies. He joined Griffith's company in 1909, branched out into directing in 1915 and had his last motion picture role in 1961 in a John Ford western. Not quite the Donald Crisp level -- Crisp had joined Griffith the year before and his last big-screen role was in 1963), but impressive!

The inconstancy of the white man

[deickemeyer · 2 January 2015]

A drama purporting to represent the constancv of the Indian, but the title might be extended and say that it represents, too, the inconstancy of the white man. The story is simple. A white man takes an Indian maiden for his wife, but tires of her within a short time and makes ardent love to a white girl who promises to marry him. The Indian woman's former Sioux lover discovers this and by producing the child convinces the white girl that the story is true. She sends for the man and confronts him with the evidence of his perfidy and her father drives him away. The wronged wife takes her baby and flees to the mountains, sinking exhausted among the rocks where she is found by her Sioux lover who takes her away with him. While this picture is a good piece of dramatic work, it is not as good as some of the Biograph Indian dramas which have been produced before. Perhape the character of the drama is partially responsible for this impression since the acting does not require the dash and spirit which have characterized former Indian dramas. There is, however, something forceful in the quiet dignity of the Sioux brave which cannot be easily set aside, but apart from this one character the dramatic possibilities are not great. It is a reasonably interesting story, told with fidelity as to details, with one possible exception. Were not the Sioux plains Indians, and were not the instances when they went to the mountains rare? Of course it is understood that no hard and fast rule of conduct governed them, but it has been established that plains Indians rarely sought the mountains, nor did the mountain Indians go to the plains. It is true that the Sioux were driven into the mountains by the white man, and perhaps it is only reasonable to accept the scenario of this drama as representing that stage in the national life of the Sioux, and maybe this view is strengthened by the fact that white people appear in the play. The photography of the picture could scarcely be improved and most of the scenes are picturesque and attractive. The costuming of the Indians appears to be reasonably accurate and the picture is pleasing. - The Moving Picture World, October 2, 1909

The Probing Camera

[Single-Black-Male · 10 June 2004]

One of the disappointing things about the 34 year old D.W. Griffith's work is that he doesn't use his camera as a character. The camera never seems to probe a scene, to search out truth or hidden insights into character. It is a passive machine, merely standing by and watching what is going on without any engagement. There is no way that you can compare Griffith with any of the Georgian painters who defined visual art. His short films are not painted with careful brush strokes but with clumsy, ungainly efforts. I learnt absolutely nothing after watching this film and felt the worst for it. He should have paid more attention to his camera script rather than churning out 2 projects per week.