I thought that it was a Documentary ...
... but It looks like a Drama , with Some Historical Facts + Ethnic Culture , Etc.
sharereally got was the girl.
share
MovieChat Forums > The Exiles (1961) Discussion > I thought that it was a Documentary ...
i have to agree somewhat. after seeing it last night it was like an experiment with documentary style. i couldn't identify a particular narrative thread, just that these are american indians from a lot of different tribes (most we don't know which tribe) hanging out together. there was no compelling arc for anyone, the pregnant girl felt a little overly sentimental, and there's really no modicum that kind of links the partiers to the ones trying to "make it"... the girl kind of? or homer, just kind of sitting back watching others misbehave? it's a loose connection. the constant voiceover started to leave me with more of a feeling like i was watching a documentary too. the narrations were good though but a lot kind of relied on it.
is this or was this an accurate reflection of the urban indian experience? just after dark maybe... it's kind of up to the viewer to frame it themselves within their understanding of the american indian experience, perhaps, and this isn't a bad way to introduce it to a largely unfamiliar audience.
i don't know, it still really felt more like a documentary about urban indian life, a slice-of-life kind of thing. i think it was the lack of a well-defined narrative that did it for me. otherwise it was amazing and also incredible how well-preserved and restored it had been. you can tell the original print was still in good condition. the night-time photography that had been developed by the end of the 50s was used to full advantage and the experiments with editing and shifting perspectives presages even the european new wave. pretty impressive on those counts but they still don't create a story so much as paint a picture.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
"don't eat me! i have a wife and kids, eat them!"
Just watched it tonight. It seems that Mackenzie blended both narrative and documentary footage, to create a Neo-realist work that also uses a noirish visual palette in the evening sequences; curiously, most of the story takes place after dark. The glowing streetlights and neon marquees looked gorgeous!
The meandering, character-driven story isn't terribly compelling, however. On a personal note, I enjoyed seeing familiar landmarks such as Angel's Flight(which I've rode), the Grand Central Market(had a great Japanese meal there some years back), and the 3rd St Tunnel, which Harrison Ford drove though in Blade Runner. In fact, I call the adjacent intersection "Blade Runner Square", as it includes the Million Dollar Theater, Bradbury Building, and the aforementioned tunnel, all significant locations in Ridley Scott's film.
I would imagine that in the 1950s, many non-Indians, particularly those residing outside Bunker Hill, would have assumed these folks to be Mexican, and indeed, some almost certainly had Spanish surnames.
shareWith good reason as around 90% of Mexicans are of Native American ancestry; something US Americans seem to be uncomfortable with (maybe due to it being hard to deny land rights to Mexico (for the regions taken in the Mexican War) and because it is hard to deny immigration into the USA by a largely indigenous American culture?).
"The game's afoot!"
Well, percentage estimates vary, but clearly, the majority of contemporary Mexicans-Americans - and Mexican nationals - have at least some indigenous blood, and many are of pure native stock. Many have some African ancestry as well, for what we now call "Mexico" was part of the Spanish Empire, and a major depository for enslaved Africans. In fact, the majority of those who founded Los Angeles in 1781 were blacks or mulattoes. Many Mexican-descended folks will deny this, through ignorance and/or bigotry.
Mexico has never sought to regain the lands taken by the U.S., partly because, I imagine, "Mexico" as a political entity only existed for 27 years before that fateful war. And the U.S. compensated Mexico for its theft of Alta California; not sure about Arizona, New Mexico, and the others.
Quite disappointed with The Exiles. Considering its subject matter I was expecting more on the racial issues Native Americans faced meaning more characterisation. Instead various internal monologues and a film consisting mostly of scenes in bars with unsympathetic characters did not contextualise such issues effectively.
"I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not".
I don't think that Native Americans living in 50s L.A. experienced the sort of discrimination that their counterparts in small rural towns in other parts of the Southwest did. I would be interested to know how they were perceived by other racial/ethnic groups in Los Angeles during that era. I'm sure there were Chicanos living in Bunker Hill at that time. The upper-crust whites were long gone from the neighborhood by the 1950s, but working-class whites were plentiful, as evidenced by the crime films and pulp fiction of the postwar era.
share