This is quite an interesting film, I had a bit of a laugh the first time I saw it as a boy but looking at it now as adult it has some merit. The film splits nicely into three different parts, firstly the Richard Harris character hunted and trapped by the tripe, the second part is his mission to become an accepted and respected member, and then finally you have the big conflict at the end with another tribe. The first part largely revolves around him running naked through films with some very careful camera editing, of course though you can't keep a good man down and he eventually rises up and is able to even marry a beautiful native and father children. There's two interesting characters at the start, an old woman who seems a bit crazy and then a French captive who acts as the interpreter. The initiation scene is pretty famous and I was really impressed with the way it was filmed, the drums, the use of light and shadow, it's all really good. Some of the editing early on is a bit weird but it does improve as it goes along. The film has some nice cinematography and interesting camera angles, the story is set in the early 1800s so before most westerns set in the 1880s, you do feel sympathy for main character and his predicament, like those around him he ends up living a harsh life, where it fails though is he never really connects with the other members of the tribe, especially the elders, it would have been great to see him make friends and exchange knowledge with them, Dances With Wolves develops this much better and does a far better job of making the natives individuals with their own personalities and characters. Some of the special effects are very dated but they are not used that often. The battle at the end is well filmed and directed, our main character even becomes the hero rallying the archers to repel the enemy. All in all fairly good.
Review of A Man Called Horse
