The Savage

To a large degree calling this film The Savage is quite the misnomer because Charlton Heston as the lead character is anything, but savage. Heston who starts out in the film with his character as a child played by Orley Lindgren is the only survivor of a wagon train massacre by the Crow Indians. A band of Sioux drive off the Crow who are their bitter enemies and take in Heston who is raised by the Sioux and given the Indian name War Bonnet.

That's his last real contact with white people until years later he rescues some cavalry troopers pinned down by the Crows who are his mortal enemies now as well. Lieutenant Peter Hansen brings him to the cavalry fort where he's accepted and even evinces some interest by Hansen's sister Susan Morrow.

But when Heston's own Indian sister Joan Taylor is killed by some other troopers the Sioux call for war and Heston is in the fight.

The Savage is a sincerely made effort at showing the American Indians as three dimensional characters in line with Broken Arrow and Devil's Doorway which came out a couple of years earlier. But the script and plot are totally muddled and with it Heston's character. In the end I'm not sure how or why he was doing what he did.

Heston does well in the part and another crucial role of note is that of Indian hating army captain Richard Rober whose career was cut short when he was killed in an automobile accident. He played a fine selection of villains in his short career and his last film was released five years after he died. Rober probably hid his face in shame in an afterlife when Jet Pilot came out.

In Heston's early years between those two DeMille epics The Greatest Show On Earth and The Ten Commandments his films varied in quality from good to mediocre. The Savage kind of falls between both categories, good intentions with poor execution.

"The Savage", an unforgettable western directed by George Marshall and starring Charlton Heston in the beginning of his film career, is a sensitive film, which was able to show the Indian in a humane and friendly way. We must consider that the film was when the Indians appeared only as hostile, dangerous and treacherous beings whose life was worthless. Not deserve any respect and kill them anything represented as punishment to whites. Some films have sought to show a more humanized Indians (the optimal "Devil's Doorway" directed by Anthony Mann, with Robert Taylor, and "Broken Arrow" directed by Delmer Daves, with James Stewart, and Jeff Chandler playing the role of Cochise). But "The Savage" is a powerful film pro-Indians, when we observe the course of the plot the immense love that united Jim Aherne, white adopted as an infant by the Indians, and their adoptive parents. It is wonderful to see the relationship between the three, valued for outstanding performance from Charlton Heston and also Ian MacDonald, a great role. The same Ian MacDonald almost simultaneously starred in High Noon, with Gary Cooper, playing the role of villain killer. And yet we can see the beautiful Joan Taylor in the role of Luta, of great expression. I consider "The Savage" a classic, a film of extreme sensitivity and very enjoyable to watch. It's one of my favorite westerns.

Oh my, this is all backwards. True that the Sioux and Crow were bitter enemies, but the Crow were the good guys in the Indian wars and the Sioux, heaven knows, were not! The Crow served as army scouts during the battles against these Sioux. The history of the Sioux shows them in constant warfare with surrounding tribes. You need a scorecard to tell Charlton Heston's loyalty from one moment to the next, but all's well that ends well in a great compromise. The scenery is beautiful and the women gorgeous. The Caucasian actors make a valiant effort to look and sound native. This film held my interest, but barely.

Photographed in color in the Black Hills of South Dakota, George Marshall's "The Savage" is a sympathetic look at the Indian Sioux presenting them as people, recurring on love and loyalty based on mutual respect—in this case, the bond between a Chief Indian and his adopted son...

The film opens in 1868 on Sioux country, with a wagon trail attacked by the aggressive Crow Indians... All are massacred except Young Heston, eleven-years old... Sioux warriors arrive on the scene, in their eyes the young boy is a brave warrior, instantly adopted by Yellow Eagle—chief of this Miniconju branch of the Sioux with the name of War Bonnet...

Time goes by and the boy grows to manhood... War was about to break out between the Sioux nation and the white men... Heston has to decide soon on whose side will fight... Meanwhile, a pretty young squaw named Luta (Joan Taylor) has fallen in love with Heston who sees her only as his "little" sister... She reacts by calling him: "Man of stone, man who sees no woman, man of no love. Blind one!"

The great moment of the film is the test of truth, before the assembled warriors in the great council meeting, questioning on Heston's divided loyalty... Yellow Eagle's only request: "My son. I ask only one thing. Do not bring disgrace to my name."

Charlton Heston early efforts as an actor are exciting:

• Heston, the best warrior: galloping at full tilt to catch a wild white stallion..

• Heston's wisdom at the Indian meeting: "Is it the pigment of a man's skin which makes him a Miniconju, a member of the mighty Sioux? Is it the color of his eyes? No, neither of these things. It is the beating inside his body."

• Heston's anger: "From this day forth, let no man call me white!"

• Heston's delicate hint if he allows the ambush to go through, innocent men, women, and children will be killed: "My heart no longer quickly grows hot with anger, but all whites are not killers."

• Heston, a peacemaker: "I do not ask for sympathy. I am here to stop you from destroying yourselves."

• Heston's warn: "More soldiers will come... More guns as many as there are stars in heaven. For every soldier you kill, ten will come."

With violent action scenes and great beautiful sceneries (mountains, lakes, woods, grasslands) "The Savage" is a fair Western, solemn, humane, rather tedious...

Strangely enough, one year later, Heston is cast in an excellent Western "Arrowhead," as a chief of scouts for U.S. armed forces fighting Apaches...

The Savage is directed by George Marshall and adapted to screenplay by Sydney Boehm from the novel The Renegade written by L.L. Foreman. It stars Charlton Heston, Susan Morrow, Ian MacDonald, Peter Hansen, Joan Taylor, Richard Rober, Ted de Corsia, Frank Richards and Don Porter. Music is by Paul Sawtell and cinematography by John F. Seitz.

It's an honourable failure, a film of good pro Indian intentions, but ultimately the narrative thrust is dampened by a script not prepared to challenge its themes. Plot finds young Jim Aherne (Orly Lindgren) as the only survivor of a wagon train attack by the Crow Indians who are not prepared to adhere to the newly called for truce between the whites and the reds. Fortunately for Jim, the Sioux come along and see off the Crow and the Sioux chief raises him as his own son in the Indian traditions. Growing up to be Warbonnet (Heston), he's a happy man, but trouble is brewing between the whites and the reds and Warbonnet gets torn between loyalties.

What transpires is a familiar thread that sees Warbonnet, a white man by birth but Indian of upbringing, see at first hand racism and foolhardy politics from both sides of the fence. There's a good quota of action spread throughout the pic, with the location photography around the Black Hills of Dakota making for a pleasing backdrop, and there's some well structured passages that let Heston strut his stuff. Yet it never adds up to being more than a gentle sermon, with characters that basically can't veer from the standard old fashioned formula of such pictorial genre pieces.

Worth a viewing for Heston and Western purists, but not worth hunting high and low for. 6/10