Essay of Cinema

Essay Assignment #1: The Rhetoric of the Cinema

15-ENGL-289

03-02-2010

I Will Fight No More Forever

The movie “I Will Fight No More Forever” by Richard T. Heffron is a re-enactment of the story of Chief Joseph of the Nez Percé Indians, who lived in the Wallowa Valley of Idaho and Oregon. In 1877, President Grant opened the Valley to white settlement, and the Nez Percé was given 30 days to move to the Lapwai Reservation with all the rest of his tribe, including women and children. The government sent the one-armed soldier-chief, General Oliver Otis Howard, to clear all Nez Percé out of Wallowa Valley. Chief Joseph took military actions in order to outmaneuver the ten pursuing units of the U.S. Army. His outnumbered band of sick, starving, and tired Indians finally surrendered after a 1700-mile, 108-day fight to stay alive and free. Finally on October 8, 1877, Chief Joseph made gave his famous speech, "from where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever."

After watching such a controversial movie I can identify clearly that the audience for which this movie was intended is definitely the general public. It is a movie filled with a good mix of drama, action, and a great historic value. I believe that it depicts a great moment in history where Native Americans had to fight with the American government for their land with all they had.

In the movie we can notice that the majority of the language was very confrontational, as it was a war themed movie, angry, as that was the feeling the Indians felt towards the military when they came to force them to move and finally sad, when chief Joseph gave up towards the end.

When listening to the dialogue, I noticed that it was very scripted, although I do have to recognize this movie was from the 70’s so it is quite different from the war themed movies now days. The dialogue for the Native Americans was very well written as it truly depicted the real talk of Indians. They would say words in a different order so...