ABSTRACT
The term “revisionist,” used to describe many of the westerns of the late 1960s and early 1970s, captures these films’ intentions well. No film expressed the revisionist spirit of the times better than Ralph Nelson’s Soldier Blue. The cinematic cycle coincided with growing attention to native peoples across American society. On 1 December, 1967, Life devoted its cover and a series of articles to “The Return of the Red Man.” Robert L. Bennett, an Oneida from Wisconsin, was President Johnson’s appointee for Commissioner of Indian Affairs, one of several Native Americans hired to run development programs. On 27 March 1973, during the Wounded Knee siege, Indian activism came to Hollywood when Marlon Brando, awarded an Oscar for The Godfather, declined to attend and sent in his place a woman named Sacheen Littlefeather. In interviews, Arthur Penn emphasized the film’s relevance to Europe, saying it was “more a film on wars of colonization” than a western.
