In the Land of the War Canoes (1914)

There is a lot of watching boats in this one

In the Land of War Canoes is what I imagine you'd call a docudrama directed by Edward S. Curtis.  The director was a photographer who spent his life capturing the American Indians rituals and culture and this film represents a reenactment of how life might have been for the natives.

The basic plot follows a love story between a young Indian man and woman.  Through a tale of love and revenge, Curtis shows us traditional canoes, costumes, dances and rituals of his subject.

And bores me to tears in the process.

There is nothing about this that works.  Curtis' focus is entirely on the documentary side of his film, with almost no attention on the drama.  Advertising for this might have read "Marvel as a man stands on a shore watching a canoe paddle away!" or "Thrill to the sight of a Native American sleeping!"  The story is a way for Curtis to get from one traditional dance to the next.  It may work for a high school social studies class, but it is not something you need to experience if it's not for a grade.


The movie also suffers from the same problem as L'Inferno: the title cards all tell you exactly what is about to happen, then you watch it.  The movie would be incompehensible without the cards, but they did not have to be so literal.

I have to say something about the sound in this.  Apparently, in the 1970s, the movie was restored and a sound engineer recorded the sounds and music of Kwakiutl Indians. They also recorded sounds of canoes on the water and birds overhead.  This was added to the restored footage (I imagine) in the hope of making it sound authentic. Instead, it comes across as though the cast of Mystery Science Theater is talking in a foreign tongue over the whole movie.  Very annoying and distracting.

I can't recommend this one to anyone.  I am sure a lot of it is authentic, but it's not engaging. At all.

Watched on DVD from Netflix
Picture from Canadian Heritage Film Festival

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Gertie the Dinosaur (1914)

An ad for Gertie

Gertie the Dinosaur is a 1914 animated short by Winsor McCay, the artist who we previously saw in Little Nemo.  The set up here is largely the same, with McCay making a bet with friends that he can make a moving dinosaur, some attempts at humor as he prepares the animation and finally a showing of the finished short.

For me, this effort was less successful than Little Nemo.  The animated portion of Gertie is straightforward in set up: a dinosaurus receives instructions from McCay in the form of title cards.  Sometimes he listens to the directions, sometimes not.  Little Nemo had this surreal nature which kept me interested.  Gertie follows the same dinosaur in front of the same background with almost no other characters.  The commands are simple like lifting up her left foot.  Not exactly a lot of drama.

The most amazing aspect of the animation is the historical significance.  This was produced prior to cel animation used by Disney.  Each frame was hand drawn by McCay and another artist.  The movements of Gertie are very smooth and precise, demonstrating McCay's attention to detail.

The non-animated set-up (as in Little Nemo) is painfully unfunny.  The animation is very well done, but not very interesting as a story.  Recommended for hard-core animation fans, but not anyone else.

Viewed on YouTube
Picture from Silent Movie Monsters

Random fact:  Gertie can still be seen today.  Recognizing the importance of McCay in the history of animation, Disney's Hollywood Studios includes an ice cream store shaped like Gertie.

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Kid Auto Races at Venice (1914)

The Little Tramp

Here's a piece of film history.  Charlie Chaplin appears for the first time as his "Little Tramp"character in Kid Auto Races at Venice.  The plot of this one is pretty straightforward. A camera crew is attempting to film a kid's race, but one of the spectators keeps finding his way into the director's viewfinder.  How can the film crew get rid of this guy without getting him killed by the oncoming traffic?

I was a little underwhelmed by this one.  I expected it to be something more than the same joke over and over.  The only thing that keeps it from being entirely boring is Chaplin's performance.  All of his physical humor is on display here.  I love the way he nonchalantly wanders into the shot.

Early in the film the movie pans to follow Chaplin across the race course.  It is also important to note that this movie is the first I have watched that is improved. The main actors went to an actual race with their camera crew and figured out there movie on site.  All of the spectators were just there for a race.

This one is good for the Chaplin completist, but otherwise wears out its welcome quickly, despite being only six minutes long.  One interesting note: there are apparently multiple cuts of this film.  The movie is listed at 11 minutes long in multiple place.  The only cuts i could find average a little more than half of that.

Watched on YouTube
Picture from Look Back in Anger

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1914: USA! USA!

Cecil B. DeMille

1914 is the year that establishes American dominance in film. This was obviously because of the important technological advancements the country was developing as well as the emergence of artists unparalleled...

Okay, it was because of a war.

Europe was subsumed by World War I in 1914 and the U.S. was left as the only game in town.  Hollywood established itself the year prior as the center of the American film universe and that fact, combined with the shuttering of Europe's studios in support of the war effort, led to America's foremost place as THE place for film in the world.  After the war, American films dominated Europe because the movies had recouped their costs in the U.S.  The stalled European studios started closing and Hollywood became the predominant force.

Some important names got their start in 1914.  Cecil B. DeMille made his first film, The Squaw Man, which became a success in part because of the marketing by Samuel Goldfish.  DeMille would go on to direct some of the biggest and most successful movies ever produced, including The Ten Commandments.  And Goldfish would change his name to Goldwyn and found a studio that we call MGM.

All of that and I have not even mentioned that Charlie Chaplin's first appearance as his "Little Tramp" character in Kid Auto Races at Venice.  Or that Jesse L. Lasky started releasing films under the newly-formed Paramount Pictures Corporation.

So what are we watching this year?  Unlike 1913, there is a real lack of 1914 films on Netflix, so it looks like we are back to the web.  The Squaw Man is available and I am hoping to watch Kid Auto Races at Venice as well.  I'll have to find a couple of others (perhaps The Spoilers which was later remade several times starring unknowns like John Wayne and Gary Cooper).

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