Saturday, January 2, 2016

Movie Review: ***Reprisal (1958)

This is a movie about Frank Madden (Guy Madison) who has come to a new town to make a start for himself.  He is half Indian, but has decided to just be white so he can own property.  It just happens that he arrives at a town ripe with racism against native Americans.  A girl likes him, but even she has an attitude against Native Americans.  Turns out two Native Americans were lynched for trespassing.  The Shipley brothers responsible for the murders are found not guilty by the white jury.  Madden does not want to take sides, but he is drawn into the conflict.  The name reprisal comes from a Native American, whose wife was one of those lynched.  He gets reprisal by killing one of the Shipleys.  However Madden is blamed, and he is close to the end of a rope by the mob, unless someone stands up for him.
This movie shows Native Americans in a bit better light than some.  However even in this film, the actors portraying the Native Americans seem to be white.  It appears it is OK to pretend to be Native American, but still having an actual Native American in the film is no good.  This is a film made, now almost 60 years ago.

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