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The Vanishing American (1925)
- Michigan State University Press
- Chapter
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| 3 Dear Diary: By the time I get through with Richard Dix, every woman in America will wish she were sharing her tipi with this hot-blooded Redman. Can anyone spell fetishized? But dear me, his next role as a redskin is going to cost us plenty of wampum. Must kissy-kissy with the bankers. After all, the show must go on. Love ya, Dix, Hollywood TheVanishing American t t t Jill Doerfler So, what can you expect from The Vanishing American? Well,itwasoriginallyasilentfilmmadein1925,andasyou mightguessbythetitle,it’sbasedonZaneGrey’spopular novel of the same name. The film has been described as an“epicscalehistoricmelodrama.”Ofcourse,“epicscale” hadquiteadifferentmeaningin1925thanitdoestoday,so don’texpectthevisualimpactoffilmslike300—although thehistoricalaccuracymightbeaboutthesame.However, some of the scenes were filmed in Monument Valley and are quite beautiful. The film was originally considered “sympathetic” in its portrayal of American Indians, but offersonlyfleetingmomentsofpositiveportrayalsofAmericanIndians.Itreflectsearlytwentiethcentury anthropological views of race and human development. While physical anthropology was challenged early on by several anthropologists, including Franz Boas, it fully emerged as a field in the United States during the 1920s. Biological determinism is a major underlying theme reflected throughout the film. The characters fulfill their predetermined destinies based on their race. As you might guess, the American Indians will be doing the “vanishing” and the European Americans will be assuming control of our lands. 4| Jill Doerfler It becomes clear right away that there is an obsession with “race” in this film. Vanishing begins with a lengthy prologue that ambitiously covers thousands of years of history, where we learn about the natural rise and fall of a variety of “races.” First we are introduced to the race of “basket weavers.” A man comes over a rocky hillside followed by a woman carrying a baby. They walk off, and soon another “race” emerges: these are the “slab-house people,” who are “more strongly developed.” They don’t really have to tell you this since it is clearly evident by their ability to stand completely upright and their more fashionable clothing choices. However, they, too, simply fade away, and then come the “cliff dwellers,” who happen to be the first “race” that there is “definite knowledge of.” These are “indolent, harmless people” who are also lazy and not very devout in their religion (this mistake will come back to haunt them). The life of the “cliff dwellers” seems to be going along just fine; the children happily bathe in mud, and adults spend their time napping. Suddenly a priest criticizes the lazy behavior of a man, and his mother—one of only two women who are allowed to “speak” in the film—comes to his defense by calling out, “Blame not my son! Blame those idle hussies, yonder!” It would seem that women are the ones who have caused the problems for this “race.” Yet, another cause is soon revealed to the audience in the intertitles. Sadly, “long years of peace had dulled the religious sense of the people.” Clearly, if the men had not been so distracted by “idle hussies” they could have been busy killing each other—after all, there’s nothing like a good war to rally a people back to religion! Anyway, as you might guess, a stronger “race”—who happen to be the first of the “race” known as Indians—came in and destroyed the “cliff dwellers,” but not before a priest was able to prognosticate the future: “May Paya the Father drive you into darkness as you have driven us! May he send a stronger race to grind you in the dust and scatter you through the Four Worlds of Lamentation!” Yikes, you can guess what happens later . . . but meanwhile the Indians prevail: “And so the conquerors dwelt for ages in the land. They raided far and wide. Their numbers grew. They believed no race could be their equal.” Those Indians sure were a confident bunch, but don’t worry, it won’t be long before they will be driven into the darkness by a stronger race. Lo and behold! The Spanish arrive on their “fire-breathing monsters” (aka horses), and it only takes about two minutes for the Indians to realize that the Spanish are really “gods,” and surrender. There is no real conflict, because the hierarchy of the “races” prevails naturally. God’s will is done. Thankfully, the Spanish and other Europeans are just the most recent in a long line of colonizers, so no need for all you Catholics to feel guilty...