Tue 8 Sep 2015
A Movie Review by Jonathan Lewis: SEMINOLE (1953).
Posted by Steve under Reviews , Western movies[2] Comments
SEMINOLE. Universal International, 1953. Rock Hudson, Barbara Hale, Anthony Quinn, Richard Carlson, Hugh O’Brian, Russell Johnson, Lee Marvin, Ralph Moody, James Best. Director: Budd Boetticher.
There’s a sequence in Seminole when U.S. Army officers are seen trudging through the hot, humid, dank Florida swamps in search of Seminoles to expel from their native lands. It’s incredibly gritty and well crafted and hints at a moral darkness in the heart of the soldiers’ commanding officer, a man gone mad by his hatred of Native Americans. To that extent, Seminole is very much part of the western genre, although the story takes place in Florida, not Arizona.
Directed by Budd Boetticher, best known for his taut western films starring Randolph Scott, Seminole features Rock Hudson as Lt. Lance Caldwell, an upstanding young army officer who believes in peaceful accommodation with the Seminole tribe. At every turn, he is denigrated and opposed by his commanding officer, Major Degan (Richard Carlson), a scheming, duplicitous man consumed with hate and venom.
The Seminoles also have their own internal disputes. The Seminole leader, Osceola (Anthony Quinn in a less than stellar performance), must face down the warmongers among his own people. To no one’s surprise, Osceola and Caldwell have known each other since they were children and are divided not just in political allegiances, but also by their affection for the same woman, Revere Muldoon (Barbara Hale).
Altogether, Seminole is distinguished not so much by its cinematography or acting, but by its humanism. The Seminoles, who aren’t portrayed as mindless warriors, bend over backwards for peace with the U.S. Army. While at times the movie can at times feel just a tad too preachy, it’s nevertheless a welcome reminder that not all Hollywood films from the early 1950s portrayed Native Americans as nothing more than enemies in the way of white settlement. In this Boetticher film, the story is far more complex.
September 9th, 2015 at 4:06 am
Not typical Boetticher, but it has its moments. And you’re right about the depiction of the Native Americans: shallow but respectful.
September 9th, 2015 at 3:39 pm
Around this time Hollywood movie attitudes were changing toward Native Americans for the first time since the silent era and THE VANISHING AMERICAN. Films like this, WHITE FEATHER, DRUM BEAT, PILLARS OF THE SKY, THE BIG SKY, and of course BROKEN ARROW were balancing the view of most westerns where the Native American was mostly a force of nature if not misguided or simply savage (de Mille in particular reveled in scenes of torture and hints of fates worse than death in his frontier films). Even films like ARROWHEAD, HONDO, and THE UNFORGIVEN hinted that the Native American had a recognizable point of view even when the hero was white.
The Seminole, as one of the five ‘Civilized tribes’ — those that had a written language — had, like the Cherokee, been much closer to white civilization than many of the plains tribes and thus were viewed differently than most plains tribes. Even then all tribes weren’t lumped together.
Ironically I was just in Seminole, OK an hour before I read this.
The ending of this film is particularly interesting with the hero saved from the cavalry by the Indians so to speak.
You don’t think of Hudson, or I don’t, as a western hero, but he has a fairly extensive portfolio in the genre playing everything from John Wesley Hardin to Taza, son of Cochise, with early roles in WINCHESTER 73, HORIZONS WEST, and BEND OF THE RIVER before he assumed the lead roles in films.