Product Details

• Actors: Jon Voight, Graham Greene, David Ogden Stiers, Jack Blessing, Anne Archer
• Directors: Harry Hook
• Writers: Stephen Harrigan
• Producers: Barbara Bloom, John Levoff, Robert Lovenheim
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302452929
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #117,088 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Between 1800 and 1900 almost 300,000 Native Americans were slaughtered. It was thought that none had remained wild, until one day in 1911, a doctor and his wife discover one survivor - and with him, the secrets of a vanished world.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

149 of 152 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent on many levels, March 18, 2002

By 

PA reviewer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last of His Tribe [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film is a must see for many reasons, primarily because it documents the very end of the ~15,000 year legacy of free Native Americans on this continent: "Ishi," the last Yahi and free ranging Native American is forced by circumstance to enter modern civilization in the early 20th Century in California. The historical significance alone makes it worth seeing.

Beyond that, Graham Greene and Jon Voight give outstanding and moving performances. Greene (who is always excellent - Clearcut, Thunderheart, Dances With Wolves, etc.) as Ishi, and Voight as the genius anthropologist who takes him in.

Voight's character is a pure scientist through and through who finds it difficult to get emotionally involved with much of anything. He prefers to look at the world in terms of evidence and hard data. He is distant as his wife is dying, and Ishi tells him (paraphrasing) 'you put me in your book, but not in your heart.'

66 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A satisfying, sweet, & good, (if not great) movie, March 11, 2006

By 

D. McDavitt "dsmcdavi" (Arlington, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last of His Tribe (DVD)

"Last of his Tribe" is a satisfying, sweet, & good, (if not great) movie. It is the simplified (& slightly fictionalized) account of the last Yana Indian nicknamed, "Ishi" by A. Kroeber (an early anthropologist at U.Berkley). It accurately portrays Kroeber's struggle to keep emperical distance from his subject as his love & friendship grew for this stoic, kind, and generous man. It is based upon the (second-hand account) book written by Kroeber's second wife Theodora (also an Anthropologist) over a decade after the events. A. Kroeber never published anything about Ishi- and even quit Anthropology for a few years after Ishi's death, so distraught was he over his friend's death, and the perception that they had killed him by working him too hard (Ishi died of tuberculosis 3 months into Sapir's linguistic analysis). The film is sensitively acted by experts (Jon Voight, Graham Greene, David Ogden Stiers). The sets & details are reasonably accurate , but even when they could translate Ishi's stories, songs, & explanations literally, they could often not make sense of them- lacking the cultural background knowledge & the Yahi's conception of the universe/ time. The film takes some unnecessary liberties with the story (**No mention of translators E. Sapir or Indian S. Botwi** Ishi was more involved with the community- playing with local children, dating, etc.** what stunned Ishi most was crowds- he had never seen more than about 60 people together in his life** Dr. Pope was one of Ishi's main advocates/friends & not weird & insensitive ** Kroeber was able to go on sabbatical in Europe [not work at a NY museum] b/c Sapir was working with Ishi... You'll cry at the end. Read T. Kroeber's book, " Ishi in Two Worlds: A Biography of the Last Wild Indian in North America" and the dvd documentary, "Ishi - The Last Yahi".

73 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Heart Wrenching!, July 6, 2000

By 

MARY TITHOF (PERRIS, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last of His Tribe [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I read the book, but the movie really brings home what the story meant. Truly amazing and heart wrenching - you will cry for Ishi, you will cry for all the Native Americans. Truly a must see! You will not be disappointed. Greene does another remarkable job!