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i almost ut it in the jokes section.........anyways this movie aired a few weeks ago in germany primetime tv...heard it was pretty popular too....read the summary
Film Review - Filmkritik
Die Übersetzung ins Deutsche befindet sich unter dem englischen Text. You will find the translation into German below the English text.
"Documentary" Movie about Cynthia Ann Parker Aired by Privately Owned German Television Station Receives Sharp Criticism
This film review is casting a light on the movie scenes and commentaries that led to sharp criticism and controversial discussions in German forums and internet communities
Film Review
Documentary „Die Weiße Komantschin" ("The White Comanche“)
Aired by SAT1 (privately owned German TV station) on Tuesday, November 12, 2013
The docu begins with showing how the Parker family lives in Texas, in a fort, protected by regular visits of the Texas Rangers. In one of the first scenes, a Ranger shows Cynthia a scalp knife (decorated with bead work) and the speaker comments: „A scalp knife – a macabre item from another world which is alien to Cynthia – as of yet.“
The raid is to take place nine days after the Rangers left. The raiding Natives are Comanche, who – as the comment says – mutilate the dead bodies.
Women and children are taken captive. To prevent their escape during the night, their hands and feet are bound behind their backs. The comment says: „... an infamous practice which almost prevents the person from breathing“.
In between sequences, there are short interviews with Prof Glenn Frankel (University of Texas, Austin) who is to explain some background details. Glenn Frankel teaches journalism and has written a book on the making of the movie „The Searchers“ with John Wayne which apparently qualifies him as an expert on things „Indian“.
Prof Glenn Frankel, as well as the comment, constantly speak of „hostages“. Glenn Frankel claims that adult persons taken hostage were routinely tortured for the entertainment of everybody. He says that babies and toddlers met the worst fate, since they were usually killed instantaneously, their heads being smashed in. Only female hostages between the ages 8 to 15 had a good chance to stay alive.
The documentary continues with scenes of inspecting the hostages, in this case Cynthia Ann Parker, her younger brother John, and two of their aunts. The comment explains that the chief was first to „thoroughly inspect the human booty“. None of the captives are killed, but the comment claims: „The warriors will sexually abuse the two women tonight“ and explains „When the women's cries died down, these sounds were replaced by the Comanche chanting savagely. They will not only smoke their pipes. They will also consume drugs. Peyote – a diabolic substance which makes the world of the warriors appear more colored.“
All the time, the scenes shown are underlaid with savage shouts and the Natives' dancing. The comment explains they were commemorating the dead enemies by presenting their scalps, among them that of Cynthia's father Silas Parker.
The next morning sees the captives still alive; the comment adds: „more or less“. The war party splits up to return to their respective bands, and the captives go to different villages. The comment claims that none of the Parker captives were to see each other again, except for Cynthia and her brother.
Next they show the warriors arriving home. Everybody meets them, and all villagers want to touch Cynthia. The comment explains: „This is no welcome. Among the Comanche, this means 'I defeated you'.“ In this and other scenes showing life in an alleged Comanche village, there are performers representing a multitude of Plains nations. There is a Pawnee, a Cheyenne Dog Soldier etc., just – as far as I saw – no Comanche, and the number of men bestowed with eagle bonnets is truly remarkable for such a small Comanche village. The docu takes very literally the quip of „All chiefs and no Indians“, as the scenes involving Comanches were all done with persons from German hobbyist groups.
This scene is followed by another interview scene with Glenn Frankel who explains that the Comanche were in constant need of persons to do the hard work and points out that there was a lot of hard work to be done in a camp with an itinerant lifestyle.
Then the man who took along Cynthia presents the girl to a couple. The German hobbyists apparently do not speak or know any Comanche, but this did not matter. Cynthia's new adoptive mother is expected to give thanks for the new daughter, and she does so with a few words of ----- Lakota! I could definitely hear the words „wopila tanka“ and „cunksi“.
This continues whenever the Comanche in the docu are expected to speak their native language – all of them say sentences in Lakota. Some speak in a way it sounds like they never said anything in Lakota before, in a stammering way, pauses set in wrong places, and with thick accents.
The docu explains that Cynthia's new parents had recently lost their child and her adoptive mother could not have any further children, so they adopted her. The comment says: „They don't seem to be bothered by the fact that their adopted daughter is a child of the hated white race“.
In the evening, Cynthia is brought to bed by her adoptive mother who takes good care of her and even tells her husband impatiently waiting beneath his blankets to shut up and wait. The comment explains there was zero private sphere in a tipi which is kitchen, living room, bed room etc. all in one. Next the adoptive mother joins her husband beneath the blankets, letting viewers know that after having seen many brutalities, the child is now to witness her new parents having sexual intercourse. The comment adds that after having witnessed murder and massacre, torture and rape, Cynthia seems to feel at home and sheltered with her new parents, and that she is to become more and more Indian, a little more day by day.
This is followed by an interview sequence with Glenn Frankel who compares Cynthia's situation and her reaction to the Stockholm syndrome, i.e. persons taken hostage eventually identifying with their captors – however, he does not mention the term Stockholm syndrome.
Glenn Frankel further explains that the situation of male and female hostages were quite different: while women or girls were expected to work hard, the situation was more of an adventure for boys who were allowed to learn hunting, using bow and arrows, accompanying war parties etc.
The docu takes continues the narration one morning, when Cynthia is expected to fetch water for the family. She stops by a captive tied to a tree with no shelter. The captive is said to be the daughter of a Mexican farmer, Consuelo, who was too old to be turned into an Indian when taken hostage. The comment claims Consuelo therefore remained a slave, just „a piece of meat without any rights“ and „fair game for everyone“.
The comment further explains that besides being worked hard, Consuelo's duties were to louse her master's entire body, and to satisfy his physical needs by night. This is shown with comic strip pictures of a man and a woman having intercourse, the woman screaming in pain and sobbing, and the man grunting and shouting triumphantly.
Cynthia is said to adapt the „Indian language“ more and more. To reflect that, her adoptive mother switches from a stilted Lakota to German, which she unfortunately speaks with a regional German accent she tries hard to hide but does not manage. This is in a scene when she teaches Cynthia how to swim and first explains, in Lakota, something to the effect of all animals can swim – buffaloes and dogs, and that Cynthia must learn to swim, too.
The next scene shows Mexican traders arriving in the Comanche village who offer money or alcohol in payment for captives handed over to them. The chief of the village accepts and Consuelo is taken off by the Mexicans, as the comment claims: „For Consuelo, this day ends a life of torture and humiliation“.
Cynthia's mother returns to her tipi and tells her husband in no uncertain terms that she intends to keep her adoptive daughter. She and Cynthia go off into the woods, waiting for the Mexicans to leave the village.
The comment explains that the Mexican traders do not want to buy „damaged goods“. In further sentences, this gets explained as they do not want to pay good money for captives seriously ill. However, the German phrase chosen has a sexual connotation and carries the meaning of a woman who had sexual intercourse and who therefore is no intact virgin.
Another interview scene with Glenn Frankel is to follow. Glenn Frankel explains that most of the captives were in fact ill and in a bad shape when freed from the Indians, due to the hard life they lead in an itinerant village. He also points out that these woman had been sexually abused and that their reintegration into white society was hard or not possible at all, since white society viewed these women as „corrupted“.
Glenn Frankel further explains that the Comanche habitually hid hostages from white visitors to their villages, in particular when they had integrated and when they had children of their own.
Nevertheless, both Glenn Frankel and the comment continue to call them „hostages“.
The docu then takes a leap of 10 years, when Cynthia is married. The comment explains: „A tribal member married her – not just in fact anyone, but her captor, Takonea Pea.“
They point out that Cynthia is happily married and expecting her first child. She gives birth in the tipi, with several women assisting her. One of the women is digging a hole in the tipi which is supposed to take the afterbirth. The comment mentions that these were women's affairs and men were supposed to stay off. Nevertheless, Cynthia's husband apparently means to enter the lodge and is sent away by one of the women – again in Lakota language, and this lady speaks the language particularly bad (perhaps she is supposed to be a fairly newly arrived captive – sarcasm off). The husband returns to a group of men waiting with him and apparently an older man reminds him of his manners – all accompanied by Tonto gestures.
The comment then announces that Cynthia has given birth to her first son who receives the name Quanah. The comment calls him „the heir to the throne“ and says the Comanche don't seem to mind that Quanah is half white. They also use the German equivalent of „halfbreed“.
Next scene shows the arrival of a white man, unarmed, in the Comanche village. His audacity is pointed out in the comment, and that the white man introduces himself as one of the Comanche. He is Cynthia's brother John who has been sent by their mother to convince Cynthia of coming back to live with her white family.
The comment explains that John, being so young when taken captive, was „completley Indianized“, so that he always missed his Comanche life after being freed several years later. Cynthia „lives a successful life“, as the comment says, and therefore does not want to return to her white mother. However, John is overcome by the renewed contact with the Comanche and decides to give up his white life to become a Comanche again.
The rest of the docu shows how Texas Rangers go to war against the Comanche at Pease River, as the comment claims in retaliation of Comanche raids of white farmers and villages. The Comanche are said to have raided a farm, taking the scalp of a pregnant woman who died in pain only three days after the raid, so the Rangers must react and retaliate.
Cynthia is captured by the Rangers and returned to her white family with her daughter Topsannah. When the Rangers raid the Comanche village, Cynthia takes her daughter and runs. She is aided by an older man. It is quite remarkable that this person wears his eagle bonnet while running through the woods to save his life from the Rangers.
Cynthia's new life begins with an elderly farm woman bathing Cynthia „to get the savage smell and dirt off her“, and cutting her hair. The farmer's wife is said to have obtained a dress from a „Negro slave woman“ for Cynthia (apparently a white woman's dress is too good for a former Indian captive...). Cynthia takes a look in the mirror, her hair cut and wearing the dress, and her face is horror-stricken. She runs out of the house. The comment finally explains that Cynthia lived with her white family, but refused to speak English. She wandered through the woods with her daughter Topsannah every day. When Topsannah died, Cynthia lost all hope and two years later refused to eat and finally died of hunger.
The last scene shows her grave in the Fort Sill cemetery, where she is buried next to her son Quanah. The comment mentions Quanah became a chief of the Comanche, and that meanwhile both the white and the Native descendants of Cynthia and Quanah commemorate their ancestors. It shows a group of both white and Native people at the graves.
The docu does not all consist of scenes filmed with hobbyists and Frankel interviews. It also includes material taken from a comic strip (paper version) presenting Cynthia's story. The comic seems to be rather dated, as there are lots of pictures showing stereotyped images of Native Americans as savage, cruel, treating their foes and captives inhumanely, slaughtering whites, and raping white women. To make these pictures more vivid, gushes of blood were added, squirting from the dead bodies of whites stabbed or chopped down by savagely grimacing Natives baring their fangs with an evil look on their face.
The docu never explains under which circumstances captives brought to Native villages were integrated into the community or whether this was possible at all. Rather, Cynthia's fate appears as an exception of an otherwise brutal rule. This combined with the explanations given by Glenn Frankel (that work hands were always needed) evokes the impression that white captives were kept as slaves. The docu also keeps calling white persons in a Native village „hostage“.
The docu, and its comment in particular, also present a successful integration of white persons into Native society as an inferior way of life, e.g. when Cynthia's brother John is said to have been „completely Indianised“ - so much that he gives up his white life again later in life to return to his Comanche family. The docu also manages to completely ignore and never mention that the land belonged to the Comanche who might have had a point in wishing to keep it for themselves. Atrocities, as far as the docu mentions them, were started by the Indians with whites retaliating, although it is mentioned that the Rangers also gave no quarter and ruthlessly killed women, children, and old people. This is defended by Glenn Frankel who says that killing women and children on both sides meant to kill the other civilisation. However, white atrocities and massacres are presented as more or less justified by earlier Comanche brutality.
It is also strange that the docu constantly renders the name of Cynthia's husband as „Tokonea Pea“ (this is what I understand), while her husband's name in real life was Peta Nocona.
Chris Woydelko
on behalf of NAAoG
Film Review - Filmkritik
Die Übersetzung ins Deutsche befindet sich unter dem englischen Text. You will find the translation into German below the English text.
"Documentary" Movie about Cynthia Ann Parker Aired by Privately Owned German Television Station Receives Sharp Criticism
This film review is casting a light on the movie scenes and commentaries that led to sharp criticism and controversial discussions in German forums and internet communities
Film Review
Documentary „Die Weiße Komantschin" ("The White Comanche“)
Aired by SAT1 (privately owned German TV station) on Tuesday, November 12, 2013
The docu begins with showing how the Parker family lives in Texas, in a fort, protected by regular visits of the Texas Rangers. In one of the first scenes, a Ranger shows Cynthia a scalp knife (decorated with bead work) and the speaker comments: „A scalp knife – a macabre item from another world which is alien to Cynthia – as of yet.“
The raid is to take place nine days after the Rangers left. The raiding Natives are Comanche, who – as the comment says – mutilate the dead bodies.
Women and children are taken captive. To prevent their escape during the night, their hands and feet are bound behind their backs. The comment says: „... an infamous practice which almost prevents the person from breathing“.
In between sequences, there are short interviews with Prof Glenn Frankel (University of Texas, Austin) who is to explain some background details. Glenn Frankel teaches journalism and has written a book on the making of the movie „The Searchers“ with John Wayne which apparently qualifies him as an expert on things „Indian“.
Prof Glenn Frankel, as well as the comment, constantly speak of „hostages“. Glenn Frankel claims that adult persons taken hostage were routinely tortured for the entertainment of everybody. He says that babies and toddlers met the worst fate, since they were usually killed instantaneously, their heads being smashed in. Only female hostages between the ages 8 to 15 had a good chance to stay alive.
The documentary continues with scenes of inspecting the hostages, in this case Cynthia Ann Parker, her younger brother John, and two of their aunts. The comment explains that the chief was first to „thoroughly inspect the human booty“. None of the captives are killed, but the comment claims: „The warriors will sexually abuse the two women tonight“ and explains „When the women's cries died down, these sounds were replaced by the Comanche chanting savagely. They will not only smoke their pipes. They will also consume drugs. Peyote – a diabolic substance which makes the world of the warriors appear more colored.“
All the time, the scenes shown are underlaid with savage shouts and the Natives' dancing. The comment explains they were commemorating the dead enemies by presenting their scalps, among them that of Cynthia's father Silas Parker.
The next morning sees the captives still alive; the comment adds: „more or less“. The war party splits up to return to their respective bands, and the captives go to different villages. The comment claims that none of the Parker captives were to see each other again, except for Cynthia and her brother.
Next they show the warriors arriving home. Everybody meets them, and all villagers want to touch Cynthia. The comment explains: „This is no welcome. Among the Comanche, this means 'I defeated you'.“ In this and other scenes showing life in an alleged Comanche village, there are performers representing a multitude of Plains nations. There is a Pawnee, a Cheyenne Dog Soldier etc., just – as far as I saw – no Comanche, and the number of men bestowed with eagle bonnets is truly remarkable for such a small Comanche village. The docu takes very literally the quip of „All chiefs and no Indians“, as the scenes involving Comanches were all done with persons from German hobbyist groups.
This scene is followed by another interview scene with Glenn Frankel who explains that the Comanche were in constant need of persons to do the hard work and points out that there was a lot of hard work to be done in a camp with an itinerant lifestyle.
Then the man who took along Cynthia presents the girl to a couple. The German hobbyists apparently do not speak or know any Comanche, but this did not matter. Cynthia's new adoptive mother is expected to give thanks for the new daughter, and she does so with a few words of ----- Lakota! I could definitely hear the words „wopila tanka“ and „cunksi“.
This continues whenever the Comanche in the docu are expected to speak their native language – all of them say sentences in Lakota. Some speak in a way it sounds like they never said anything in Lakota before, in a stammering way, pauses set in wrong places, and with thick accents.
The docu explains that Cynthia's new parents had recently lost their child and her adoptive mother could not have any further children, so they adopted her. The comment says: „They don't seem to be bothered by the fact that their adopted daughter is a child of the hated white race“.
In the evening, Cynthia is brought to bed by her adoptive mother who takes good care of her and even tells her husband impatiently waiting beneath his blankets to shut up and wait. The comment explains there was zero private sphere in a tipi which is kitchen, living room, bed room etc. all in one. Next the adoptive mother joins her husband beneath the blankets, letting viewers know that after having seen many brutalities, the child is now to witness her new parents having sexual intercourse. The comment adds that after having witnessed murder and massacre, torture and rape, Cynthia seems to feel at home and sheltered with her new parents, and that she is to become more and more Indian, a little more day by day.
This is followed by an interview sequence with Glenn Frankel who compares Cynthia's situation and her reaction to the Stockholm syndrome, i.e. persons taken hostage eventually identifying with their captors – however, he does not mention the term Stockholm syndrome.
Glenn Frankel further explains that the situation of male and female hostages were quite different: while women or girls were expected to work hard, the situation was more of an adventure for boys who were allowed to learn hunting, using bow and arrows, accompanying war parties etc.
The docu takes continues the narration one morning, when Cynthia is expected to fetch water for the family. She stops by a captive tied to a tree with no shelter. The captive is said to be the daughter of a Mexican farmer, Consuelo, who was too old to be turned into an Indian when taken hostage. The comment claims Consuelo therefore remained a slave, just „a piece of meat without any rights“ and „fair game for everyone“.
The comment further explains that besides being worked hard, Consuelo's duties were to louse her master's entire body, and to satisfy his physical needs by night. This is shown with comic strip pictures of a man and a woman having intercourse, the woman screaming in pain and sobbing, and the man grunting and shouting triumphantly.
Cynthia is said to adapt the „Indian language“ more and more. To reflect that, her adoptive mother switches from a stilted Lakota to German, which she unfortunately speaks with a regional German accent she tries hard to hide but does not manage. This is in a scene when she teaches Cynthia how to swim and first explains, in Lakota, something to the effect of all animals can swim – buffaloes and dogs, and that Cynthia must learn to swim, too.
The next scene shows Mexican traders arriving in the Comanche village who offer money or alcohol in payment for captives handed over to them. The chief of the village accepts and Consuelo is taken off by the Mexicans, as the comment claims: „For Consuelo, this day ends a life of torture and humiliation“.
Cynthia's mother returns to her tipi and tells her husband in no uncertain terms that she intends to keep her adoptive daughter. She and Cynthia go off into the woods, waiting for the Mexicans to leave the village.
The comment explains that the Mexican traders do not want to buy „damaged goods“. In further sentences, this gets explained as they do not want to pay good money for captives seriously ill. However, the German phrase chosen has a sexual connotation and carries the meaning of a woman who had sexual intercourse and who therefore is no intact virgin.
Another interview scene with Glenn Frankel is to follow. Glenn Frankel explains that most of the captives were in fact ill and in a bad shape when freed from the Indians, due to the hard life they lead in an itinerant village. He also points out that these woman had been sexually abused and that their reintegration into white society was hard or not possible at all, since white society viewed these women as „corrupted“.
Glenn Frankel further explains that the Comanche habitually hid hostages from white visitors to their villages, in particular when they had integrated and when they had children of their own.
Nevertheless, both Glenn Frankel and the comment continue to call them „hostages“.
The docu then takes a leap of 10 years, when Cynthia is married. The comment explains: „A tribal member married her – not just in fact anyone, but her captor, Takonea Pea.“
They point out that Cynthia is happily married and expecting her first child. She gives birth in the tipi, with several women assisting her. One of the women is digging a hole in the tipi which is supposed to take the afterbirth. The comment mentions that these were women's affairs and men were supposed to stay off. Nevertheless, Cynthia's husband apparently means to enter the lodge and is sent away by one of the women – again in Lakota language, and this lady speaks the language particularly bad (perhaps she is supposed to be a fairly newly arrived captive – sarcasm off). The husband returns to a group of men waiting with him and apparently an older man reminds him of his manners – all accompanied by Tonto gestures.
The comment then announces that Cynthia has given birth to her first son who receives the name Quanah. The comment calls him „the heir to the throne“ and says the Comanche don't seem to mind that Quanah is half white. They also use the German equivalent of „halfbreed“.
Next scene shows the arrival of a white man, unarmed, in the Comanche village. His audacity is pointed out in the comment, and that the white man introduces himself as one of the Comanche. He is Cynthia's brother John who has been sent by their mother to convince Cynthia of coming back to live with her white family.
The comment explains that John, being so young when taken captive, was „completley Indianized“, so that he always missed his Comanche life after being freed several years later. Cynthia „lives a successful life“, as the comment says, and therefore does not want to return to her white mother. However, John is overcome by the renewed contact with the Comanche and decides to give up his white life to become a Comanche again.
The rest of the docu shows how Texas Rangers go to war against the Comanche at Pease River, as the comment claims in retaliation of Comanche raids of white farmers and villages. The Comanche are said to have raided a farm, taking the scalp of a pregnant woman who died in pain only three days after the raid, so the Rangers must react and retaliate.
Cynthia is captured by the Rangers and returned to her white family with her daughter Topsannah. When the Rangers raid the Comanche village, Cynthia takes her daughter and runs. She is aided by an older man. It is quite remarkable that this person wears his eagle bonnet while running through the woods to save his life from the Rangers.
Cynthia's new life begins with an elderly farm woman bathing Cynthia „to get the savage smell and dirt off her“, and cutting her hair. The farmer's wife is said to have obtained a dress from a „Negro slave woman“ for Cynthia (apparently a white woman's dress is too good for a former Indian captive...). Cynthia takes a look in the mirror, her hair cut and wearing the dress, and her face is horror-stricken. She runs out of the house. The comment finally explains that Cynthia lived with her white family, but refused to speak English. She wandered through the woods with her daughter Topsannah every day. When Topsannah died, Cynthia lost all hope and two years later refused to eat and finally died of hunger.
The last scene shows her grave in the Fort Sill cemetery, where she is buried next to her son Quanah. The comment mentions Quanah became a chief of the Comanche, and that meanwhile both the white and the Native descendants of Cynthia and Quanah commemorate their ancestors. It shows a group of both white and Native people at the graves.
The docu does not all consist of scenes filmed with hobbyists and Frankel interviews. It also includes material taken from a comic strip (paper version) presenting Cynthia's story. The comic seems to be rather dated, as there are lots of pictures showing stereotyped images of Native Americans as savage, cruel, treating their foes and captives inhumanely, slaughtering whites, and raping white women. To make these pictures more vivid, gushes of blood were added, squirting from the dead bodies of whites stabbed or chopped down by savagely grimacing Natives baring their fangs with an evil look on their face.
The docu never explains under which circumstances captives brought to Native villages were integrated into the community or whether this was possible at all. Rather, Cynthia's fate appears as an exception of an otherwise brutal rule. This combined with the explanations given by Glenn Frankel (that work hands were always needed) evokes the impression that white captives were kept as slaves. The docu also keeps calling white persons in a Native village „hostage“.
The docu, and its comment in particular, also present a successful integration of white persons into Native society as an inferior way of life, e.g. when Cynthia's brother John is said to have been „completely Indianised“ - so much that he gives up his white life again later in life to return to his Comanche family. The docu also manages to completely ignore and never mention that the land belonged to the Comanche who might have had a point in wishing to keep it for themselves. Atrocities, as far as the docu mentions them, were started by the Indians with whites retaliating, although it is mentioned that the Rangers also gave no quarter and ruthlessly killed women, children, and old people. This is defended by Glenn Frankel who says that killing women and children on both sides meant to kill the other civilisation. However, white atrocities and massacres are presented as more or less justified by earlier Comanche brutality.
It is also strange that the docu constantly renders the name of Cynthia's husband as „Tokonea Pea“ (this is what I understand), while her husband's name in real life was Peta Nocona.
Chris Woydelko
on behalf of NAAoG
This is how I dance when your standing next to me...
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