PERSONAL RESPONSE - Reel Injun

Reel Injun: On The Trail of the Hollywood Injun – Passionate Eye

Personal Response

Erin Williams

  

In the documentary Reel Injun: On the Trail of The Hollywood Indian – Passionate Eye Cree producer Neil Diamond portrays the concept that First Nations peoples are not represented appropriately in Hollywood film. Through the use of movies such as Geronimo, Dances with Wolves, and Flags of Our Fathers, Diamond explores the “Indian” stereotype and how it has a negative impact on First Nations in our society today. Because of Hollywood, Aboriginal Peoples are thought to have large headdresses, live in teepees and be excellent horsemen however in reality; they are civilized and not much different from what people consider to be the rest of society. The idea is presented that “[as children, First Nations] never identified with Indians,” because it is not how they considered themselves to act. The concept of this film should be significant to society because it brings to light the severity and detrimental effects stereotyping, as well as incorrect information, can have in a society. However, it also promotes the idea that not everything that is seen from Hollywood should be taken as the truth, and that it is up to us, as individuals, to be responsible for knowing this.

Although not intentional, my background causes me to react negatively to the text. Throughout thirteen years of schooling, I have never particularly enjoyed Social Studies, and find it to be fairly repetitive. Despite the fact that I do think that learning about our Canadian and Albertan history to be very important, I think that learning about First Nations for eight years in a row can become fairly monotonous. Having said this, after watching Reel Injun I realize the impact that society has had on shaping a negative air around this subject matter and how people have fell in love with “the romance of the tragedy”.  With his interests, as well as his people’s interests in mind, Neil Diamond brings an uncommon perspective to this film and created a realistic image of how Indigenous Peoples view themselves, and not how society views them.

While I found the true intent of the movie to be somewhat lost within many messages, I value the legitimacy of what Neil Diamond believes. Although I think that an incorrect Hollywood stereotype should not define a nation. Just like James Bond is not a correct interpretation of English society, Hollywood depictions of Indians should not be thought of as true Aboriginals. This enforces the theme of appearance versus reality and how things are not always what we think. Perhaps blame can be placed on Hollywood for being too ignorant to learn about the remarkable culture of the First Nations and producing this stereotype, or maybe it is our fault, as part of the human condition in which we want to believe everything that we see. Either way, as film is continued to be developed, it should be taken into account that good or bad, the things that we are exposed to shape our understandings and ideas about the world and people around us.