Customer Reviews

I Will Fight No More Forever: The Heroic, Tragic Story of the Nez Perce Indians and their Leader, Chief Joseph [VHS]

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

First of all, I don't know why some reviewers say this film has Kevin Costner & Graham Greene; it stars James Whitmore, Sam Elliot, & Ned Romero as Chief Joseph. This is an accurate, historical telling of the removal of the Nez Perce tribe to reservation land in 1877. When this peaceful tribe attempts to resist the forced removal by travelling to Canada, they are pursued & eventually captured by the military, led by General Otis Howard--a former friend of Joseph(well-played by James Whitmore). This movie is by no means of Oscar-winning calabre. It's a semi-documentary story of a significant event in American History. It is slow at times. The acting is adequate but by no means just wonderful. As a history teacher, I like this movie & it's story--a good story at that. Also, it was made for TV in 1975--it is dated. Movies today on TV are more violent with all sorts of cursing; this movie does not overdo the violence or cursing at all. It's "good & clean" family fare. I highly recommend it for its true story and respectable portrayal of Native Americans.

I find it interesting that those who do not live in the area in which this movie takes place, (attention Ireland, I am Irish, but that doesn't mean I can begin to write about your country with any real understanding!)feel the need to bash it so badly. Try to recall that it wasn't all that long ago that we would never have even attempted to look at the Native American side of this issue. If you're looking for Oscar work here, let's get serious. This is a story that needed to be told, of a chief whose tactics are taught at West Point. Yes, it could have been better produced, but it wasn't exactly politically correct at that time, we were still in our infancy as recognizing Native American culture and as a 40 year old anthropology student, I can tell you, there is still much to learn. This movie was made almost 30 years ago and if you look at most movies from that time, they all seem a bit hokey and the Native Americans (and most ethnic groups, including the Irish)are badly portrayed. So stop trying to see the flaws and recognize one of the first films America has made that made the Native Americans out as heroes, not drunken idiots. I recommend this film, show it to your kids and celebrate some American History.

Great job telling the story of the American Indians and how they were treated. It deals with Gen. Howard going beyond his own personal convictions to "follow orders" As a U.S. history teacher it vividly shows my students the struggle of the Indians, as well as the struggle of those who wanted them to be left alone.

This film has been a long time coming. Chief Joseph was a charismatic figure who was articulate, intelligent and a wise leader. He found himself, along with many other tribal chiefs in a situation not of his making and about which he could do very little in the long term.

A man who respected the earth and deeply loved the lands in which the Nez Perce lived, he fought hard for his people but inevitably lost the war,gaining however, the respect and admiration of many Americans as the

flight of the Nez Perce towards Canada became known.

His many famous speeches and his profound wisdom put him on a level with Chief Seattle. This film is a good portrait of him and explains well the background and general history of the Nez Perce struggle. It also portrays aptly the difficulties for the pursuing army and explores the attitudes among the higher officers toward the Indians. It is not an overpolished or slick film, and this adds to the feeling of authenticity.

A must for lovers of Native American history, and one which I was delighted to see had been made.

Another great movie that tells the true story of one of our Native American Tribes and it's Chief. Why couldn't the whites just let them be?

Even the most callous of us must be shamed by this true story.

This is one of the most heartbreaking stories I have watch. To watch the indians get pushed off their lands by greedy white men were horrrible. Chief Joseph didn't won't to fight but his people did. And they lost. The truth is told is how white men pushed around the indians and anybody they had power over. A truly sad beautiful movie of a chief and his people who wanted to be left alone. Finally a true story telling how the indians were robbed.

I Will Fight No More Forever is a wonderful dramatization of the flight of Chief Joseph and Nez Perce Indians from US Soldiers when they were ordered to leave the Walla Walla Valley for a reservation in Oklahoma. A small band of Nez Perce Indians led by Chief Joseph attempted to flee to Canada. They never made it but in a famous tactical maneuver, was able to elude soldiers for months. In the end the band was captured 40 miles away from freedom in Canada. Chief Joesph made his famous speech, I Will Fight No More Forever.

This film should be reviewed in two parts; The first for its subject matter, and the second; for its cinematic qualities. The latter being irrelevant, due to the nature of its historical content.

American western films often portrayed the Native American Indians as the enemy or as uncivilized savages, but that all changed in 1970, with the release of "Little Big Man" (starring Dustin Hoffman in the title role). In each year previous, dozens and dozens of western movies had been released each year, but after 1970 and the release of Little Big Man, Hollywood decided that either it wasn't economically viable to continue making western films, in its prior traditional format, or it was more trouble than its worth to try and depict the Old West as it really was. The end result was that Hollywood has released few westerns after Little Big Man, but the majority of those that have been released, are often far more sympathetic to the reality of the west, as it actually was, during the 19th century.

Those Indian tribes of the Northwest, referred to as the Nez Pearce, was a name coined by the early French trappers (Nez Pearce meaning Pearced Noses), but the tribes, those that followed Chief Joseph and others, called themselves the Wallowa Indians.

Chief Joseph the younger (his father was also Chief Joseph), was more than just a tribal Chief, that fought the US Army, but in reality was truly an American Hero that has never really been correctly depicted in our schools and history books.

In 1873, Chief Joseph had negotiated a peace with the Army, allowing them (the Wallowas) to stay on their ancestral lands (the Wallowa mountains and Wallowa Valley of northeastern Oregon and southeastern Washington), but in the year following the Battle of the Little Big Horn (June 25th, 1876), and the defeat of Colonel Custer and 245 members of the Army's 7th Calvary, many of the US Government's former policies changed. Including those policies regarding "non-treaty" Indians of Oregon and Washington.

When Joseph made council with General Howard, he reluctly agreed to move his people from the Wallowas and onto the reservation in Idaho, but ended his meeting with the statement: "It is my disbelief that the Great Spirit Chief gave one kind of men the right to tell another kind of men what they must do."

General Howard took this statement, by Joseph, as a direct afront to his authority and demanded that the Nez Pearce non-treaty Indians vacate the Wallowa Valley, within 30 days, and if they were still there on day 31, this would be considered an act of war!

Though Chief Joseph advocated peace over war (sort of an early day pacifist), several young braves had taken it upon themselves to attack and kill 4 white settlers, Chief Joseph then knew that an attack, by General Howard, would happen any moment.

Rather than attempt to negotiate further, Chief Joseph gathered the 800 members (almost entirely made of elderly, women, and children) of his tribe and began a 3-month long running battle with the US Army, all in an attempt to escape the US territories and make it into Canada to join up with the Hunkpapa Medicine Chief, Sitting Bull. During their 3-month flight, the Wallowa tribe, under Chief Joseph covered 1,700 miles and the defensive tactics the Wallowas used are still taught today at West Point.

Less than 40 miles from the Canadian border, the weather turned on Joseph and the surviving Wallowas, but after only a few days of rest, believing they had several weeks before General Howard would catch up, Chief Joseph and his Wallowa tribe were attacked from the North by General Miles, something unforeseen by Chief Joseph.

The actual translation of Chief Joseph's surrender agreement read:

"Tell General Howard I know his heart. What he told me before, I have it in my heart. I am tired of fighting. Our chiefs are killed; Looking Glass is dead, Too-hul-hul-sote is dead. The old men are all dead. It is the young men who say yes or no. He who led on the young men is dead. It is cold, and we have no blankets; the little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills, and have no blankets, no food. No one knows where they are--perhaps freezing to death. I want to have time to look for my children, and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead. Hear me, my chiefs! I am tired; my heart is sick and sad. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

After the surrender, the surviving Wallowas, along with Chief Joseph, were eventually returned to the reservation in Idaho.

Chief Joseph spent the remaining 25 years of his life, often stating that it was his desire that the injustice of the United States policy toward his people would be corrected and held out the hope that America's promise of freedom and equality might one day be fulfilled for all Native Americans as well. Chief Joseph died in 1904, never having seen the sacred lands of his ancestors again. His attending doctor said that Chief Joseph died "of a broken heart".

Though this film is over 35 years old, if viewed as a documentary, rather than a hollywood movie, I believe you will enjoy it much more.

There is a credible rumor that Steven Speilberg is considering a run of miniseries, chronicling "Great American Heroes" and the life of Chief Joseph and Wallowa Indians would be his first release. This series of TV miniseries' would be in the same format as his (Speilberg) "Into The West" miniseries of a few years ago.

I was disapointed in this movie. Considering the talent of the actors, the film did not live up to what I expected