Leofwine_draca A MAN CALLED HORSE is a solid enough western of its day, perhaps slightly dated for the modern viewer but a film that still provides a hard-hitting and thought-provoking journey. Richard Harris is well cast as the tough hunter captured by the Sioux tribe and forced to undergo all manner of indignities, tribulations, and torture as he gradually finds himself accepted by a race he previously viewed as inferior. Yep, this is the DANCES WITH WOLVES of its day, and while not as glossy or well made as that film, it's still quite engaging. What's most interesting is how much of a visual story this is, with barely any dialogue which means the film gets by on physicality alone. The torture scenes remain gruelling to this day.

mercersk This movie is a powerful testimony to the endurance and spiritual life of the Plains Indians, of a time gone forever. When I first saw it in 1970, I was impressed with the production, but after seeing it again more than 40 years later, I was far more moved. I am rarely ever brought to tears by a movie, but this movie touched me so deeply that it was a bona fide spiritual experience, and even more powerfully moving. It also serves as a testimony of how the Indians lived, their culture, and how they practiced their own form of spirituality. I think this movie is a "must see" for anyone wanting to experience what life might have been like in those long-past times. I found myself grieving along with the people of the tribe after the attack and tragic deaths of many of the tribes people.

bob the moo Englishman John Morgan is travelling around the frontier in the gradually opening US when his companions are killed and himself captured by Sioux Indians. He is treated as an animal and made to work for an old woman in the tribe, while the warriors all dismiss this white prisoner as too weak to be of any threat or interest. When Morgan first has he opportunity to show himself stronger than they think he finds himself more accepted by the tribe. Over years he comes to learn more about them and, gradually become one of the tribe.Just to get it out of the way, let me just say that this film was probably of more value when it first came out in 1970 than it is today. And yes certainly revisionist westerns recently (such as Dances with Wolves) owe it something in way of a debt. However neither of these things are really on the table when it comes to be putting aside two hours of my time to watch a film – I'll mostly try and meet it where it is but this is not carte blanche for excuses. With A Man Called Horse it does probably help to have a certain mindset in regards Native Americans to be able to enjoy it. I do not (and never will) own a dream-catcher, nor do I refer to any race as "beautiful people" (any more than I would describe any race as "horrible people") and as such I don't think this is meant for me because it relies heavily on the viewer being caught up in experiencing Sioux life.That is not to say that it has no value if you cannot get this aspect, but just that if you are not already swooning at the "spiritual" people before you then this might be a bit of a drag. At two hours long I felt that the film had too little in the way of experience and too much in the way of fawning adoration for the culture. Not sharing this view will leave you out in the cold to some degree. Fortunately there is just about enough going on in and around this film to make it reasonably interesting with action and some character events. It doesn't save it from how enamoured with the subject but it makes it just about serviceable as a dramatic story – even if the two hours is way too much of an ask for it. Harris works hard and I think he deserves credit that the director and writers do not. He finds a solid character and grows convincingly within it and deals the best he can with the material given him. The rest of the cast are convincing enough although the rich Technicolor of the film does rather work against it in terms of realism in the presentation and their performances.A Man Called Horse is worth noting for what it tries to do but it is also worth ignoring because of what it actually does. The dramatic story is stretched over the running time but mostly it is killed by just how much in awe and reverence the film appears to be of its own subjects. If you own a dream-catcher then your head may be in the place for this to work but for me it was close to being hard work to get through it.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU It is one of the rare films about American Indians that is not at all concerned by their extermination by Custer and company. But it is in fact a lot deeper than that. It shows from inside the functioning, the culture, the rites and rituals of Sioux Indians when a white English Lord is captured and turned into a slave for some time. It shows how he manages to become a warrior by killing two Shoshone assailants. Then he marries the sister of the chief and eventually becomes the chief after a war with the Shoshones who attack the village that he defends successfully. And then they move. It shows how hard they are with old women when their sons have disappeared. It shows how hard they are with their warriors who have to go through very cruel rites. Pain is the deliverer of the soul. It shows the basic motivation of wars between tribes: to loot the others, in other words to survive by doing nothing productive but appropriating what is not theirs but the others'. It could be considered as light anthropologically but when it came out in 1970 it was a real revolution in the sympathy and empathy it conveyed about the Indians, but also about the fact that cruelty and pain were never looked for per se but always to prove the courage and the strength of the person. In other words it is the proof that Sioux Indians had a high level of morality based on proved physical endurance and courage. It also proved that love was a real dimension among them governing the relations among fellow human beings in the tribe and between men and women, though their love was not necessarily expressed the way we would romantically adorn it.Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines