The Light in the Forest (1958)

Another day, another Western, but this one marks the end of an era.  And let me tell you, I do not have high hopes for this one.  Still, maybe I’ll be pleasantly surprised.  Here’s hoping!

Disclaimer: This blog is purely recreational and not for profit. Any material, including images and/or video footage, are property of their respective companies, unless stated otherwise. The authors’ claim no ownership of this material. The opinions expressed therein reflect those of the authors and are not to be viewed as factual documentation. All photos are capped from my copy of the movie with InstantShot! unless otherwise specified.

This book was awful.  Conrad Richter is trying to craft a “two worlds meet” kind of story about a boy adopted by a Native family who gets sent back to his white birth parents, which is all well and good.  The narration just has this attitude towards the Native peoples that really started to irritate me after a while.  I know one, in particular, is technically a villain but this was a rough read.  There is literally a scene where True Son and his birthparents’ son go to visit an African American basketweaver who was taken from a Native family to be sold into slavery.  He goes on for two pages about how much better this life is than his Native life because white society taught him about Jesus.  I am not kidding.  I almost threw my phone.

So yeah.  I cannot fathom why Disney decided to make a film out of this.  In fact, the production was rather troubled.  It was greenlit way back in 1953, but did not begin production until 1957 during star James Macarthur’s summer break from college.  It premiered at a charity benefit in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, with Wendell Corey and a few Mouseketeers in attendance.  Despite my impending dread, reviews for this one seem largely positive, even from modern reviewers.  Critics like the simplicity and quaintness with which they tackle difficult issues of race, and they liked the acting and the cinematography.  That’s pretty reassuring but the 38% on Rotten Tomatoes and just how bad that book was have me extremely wary.  Well, let’s hold our noses and get through this together.

STORY

The movie opens on my two least favorite sounds in the world: Fess Parker’s monotone and bagpipe music. Colonel Henry Bouquet meets with a group of Native tribal leaders to discuss a treaty that actually existed in real life. A scout called Del Hardy stands between the two parties to act as a translator. Cuyloga, chief of the Lenni Lenape tribe (called the Delaware by the whites) makes a peace offering which is scoffed at by Bouquet. Seems several white guys were recently murdered by Native peoples. Cuyloga argues that it was self-defense after a white band called the Paxton Boys slaughtered the whole Conestoga tribe even after they converted to Christianity. Bouquet does not condone any of this and cuts right to the chase. He promises that he’ll allow no more settlers past the Ohio River. That land is all Native. Moreover, the whites won’t attack the Lenni Lenape again unless they’re attacked first. In return, the Lenni Lenape have to return any and all white captives they’ve taken over the years. The two sides shake on it and a thousand years of peace reigned… just kidding. The white people broke the treaty to microscopic little pieces. But that’s not what this story is about.

One such white captive is True Son, who’s watching the scene through the trees with his cousin and friend Half Arrow. True Son’s not too worried about this “returning white captives” business. He’s lived among the Lenni Lenape as long as he can remember. That makes him Lenni Lenape, and Cuyloga won’t return his own son, right….? Nope. He totally does. Everyone in the tribe is well aware that the white guys are going to break their promise of peace but Cuyloga doesn’t want to be the first to go back on his word. All the white members of the tribe have to leave whether they want to or not. And that includes True Son. But Half Arrow interrupts True Son’s ensuing broodfest with news. The council is voting on whether or not people should leave if they don’t want to. If this goes well, True Son can stay with his adoptive family.

But it does not go well. True Son has to leave. Half Arrow decides he’s going to accompany him and massacre the whole white settlement because lol those bloodthirsty savages amirite? Seriously, all this kid wants to do is scalp people. Who doesn’t love a good stereotype. True Son is not on board with this plan, but not because it’s cringily racist. He’s planning on killing himself with mandrake root on the way to the white settlement, which will be considered a great victory over the whites. Meanwhile, Del reports back to Bouquet, anxious because the captives haven’t arrived. He’s not sure they’re even coming because he knows that the Delaware have been known to adopt white captaives and they won’t want to give up their families. He was one such captive, well-treated and loved, running free through the woods, until he somehow ended up back with the white people. But lo and behold, the Natives do arrive with their white family members in hand, forcing Del to eat his words. They’re all devastated at having to leave the people they love.

It’s True Son’s turn to face the colonel’s army. He glares mutinously at Cuyloga for leading him here, but Cuyloga has the patience of a saint. He offers his son some words of wisdom in a moment that’s actually wonderful. The Lenni Lenape language is untranslated but the love and strength in their body language and inflection is unmistakable. Once he’s gone, Del attempts to be reassuring, promising that True Son is with his own people now and his “real” family is coming soon. Unsurprisingly, this doesn’t have quite the intended effect. True Son flips out, swearing up and down that he’s Native no matter who gave birth to him. And he’s got a point. Adoptive parents are still parents, guys. What matters is who nurtured and cared for you. But this is the 50s so I guess people thought about things a little differently. Del makes the mistake of turning his back on an angry teenager with a rifle in easy reach and said teenager attempts to beat him to death with it. But Del is just sure that his birth family’s incorruptible pure whiteness will win him over.

Tthe army marches the kids through the woods towards the white settlement. Suddenly, True Son dives for the ground. He digs up a handful of poisonous mandrake root and shoves it into his mouth. Del wrestles him and forces him to spit it out, snarling that he’s going back to his white family alive whether he likes it or not. They end up tying him up so he can’t attempt suicide again because literally no one cares what this kid wants. Suddenly, a bird calls from the woods which, upon investigation, turns out to not be a bird at all but Half Arrow. He’s come to keep True Son company, and they even allow him to stay to calm him down.

The army makes camp and everyone sits down to eat but True Son has no appetite. Half Arrow urges him to keep his strength up so they can murder everyone here because this kid has issues. Oh, and he has gifts: moccasins from True Son’s Native mother and the bearskin he used to sleep on from Cuyloga. In return, True Son gives Half Arrow the wrap thing he’s wearing to remember him by. Half Arrow reminds him again that the Natives adopt captives they like and kill the ones who prove troublesome. If he’s good, the whites will like him and accept him and everything will be fine. Somehow that encourages True Son to finally eat.

The march arrives at the river, but Half Arrow isn’t allowed to cross because reasons. The boys protest that Half Arrow doesn’t have to obey the colonel’s orders but Del blocks Half Arrow’s path anyway. True Son tackles Del into the river but fails and has to say goodbye to Half Arrow anyway. The army and their captives make it back to the fort and get started returning the children to their birth families. Among them is Harry Butler, in search of his son John. True Son doesn’t recognize that he’s talking to him, nor does he know why this random white dude is crying and hugging him. In fact, Del has to ask him three times for True Son to say anything at all. Everyone is absolutely convinced that all True Son needs is time to adjust. Hey, here’s an idea. How about you give him some semblance of control over his own life and stop demonizing his adoptive family and everything he knows? Bouquet decides Del is going to go with the Butlers to watch out for Johnny and help bridge the gap between his Native past and his white future… and to protect him from the Native-killing Paxton Boys.

Harry leads Del and True Son to the Butler family home, to the horror of a girl standing at the window. His sister-in-law, Aunt Kate, introduces the girl as Shenandoe, who is terrified of Natives. It’s for her sake that she demands True Son ditch everything he knows and act “civilized” and I want to strangle this woman. She gives the boys permission to head up to True Son’s birthmother’s sick room. Myra herself grabs him to kiss his cheek, causing True Son to flinch. It’s the only reaction he gives, though. Harry, Del, and Myra discuss True Son’s silence and reluctance to speak English like he’s not even there, coming to the conclusion that he’s never been a Native so he’s just going to drop everything and be “normal” right out of the gate. No adjustment period necessary or even allowed. That’s not how any of this works, people.

Myra is super condescending about forcing him to admit his name is John Butler and eventually decides to lock him in her room until he says it. He insists his name is Lennaqui (True Son) but she doesn’t care what he wants to be called. Eventually he says “John Butler” just to get her out of his face. Pacified, she orders him to bathe and dress “civilized” so he can meet his white family and friends. Del is sent in to supervise.  This bath mostly consists of True Son sulking in the tub. Del shows him how to use soap and scrub but True Son is still indifferent until Del threatens to get Myra. This movie just has to cover all its bases and be as terrible as possible, so True Son asks if it’s normal for white women to be this demanding. Del says yes but paints it as not a big deal which sounds good but again, he’s really patronizing about it and I don’t appreciate it. He then shifts gears back to why, exactly, True Son has to bathe: wearing heavy clothes and being inside a house makes you stink. That horrifying thought finally gets True Son to practice scrubbing like Del taught him.

Just as Myra said, the Butlers’ family and friends come out to meet True Son. Del introduces himself to the leader of the Paxton Boys, Reverend John Elder, and sets up a meeting to discuss the whole brutal murder thing. He introduces his daughter, Millie, and she and Del are immediately smitten with each other. True Son emerges in his new white people clothes and hesitates on the stair until Myra frogmarches him down to all these strangers. Strange people keep shaking his hand and laughing at his Native hairstyle, and then we meet Uncle Wilse. And he is the WORST. The. WORST. The first words out of his mouth are congratulating him on getting free from “those Devils” and the second are accusing him of “turning Indian”. Of course, Aunt Kate and Myra aren’t much help in getting him to shut his mouth. Telling him he’ll look normal once his hair grows back out isn’t really any less offensive, after all.

Anyway, it’s not his looks that Wilse objects to, it’s his Native thoughts because of course all Natives are liars, thieves, and killers. He demands to know how many women and children True Son’s tribe scalped which finally gets True Son to speak. The Lenni Lenape don’t bother women and children.  Enraged, Wilse hauls Shenandoe front and center and spill her family history in front of God and everybody. She’s scared of Natives because a different tribe massacred her family in front of her, including scalping her little sister. She panics and runs away. True Son retorts that Wilse wasn’t so self-righteous when he and the Paxton Boys killed the Conestoga but he’s outnumbered. Every man here is a Paxton Boy, and Wilse in particular considers those atrocities nothing more than “cleaning up” the country. The two argue back and forth about which side is really made up of murdering cowards, culminating in Wilse slapping True Son. It’s a particularly funny bit of bad acting because he just kinda… swats his cheek and everyone loses their minds trying to restrain him. Del gets up in his face warning him to keep his hands off the kid. Intimidated by the sheer testosterone emanating from Del’s Fess Parkeriness, Wilse takes his leave.

Later on, Uncle Wilse creeps out the barn window, watching Harry showing True Son how to mend a fence. He calls Shenandoe over and orders her to go into his room and steal his Native clothes. She’s terrified and reluctant to do it because my God does this girl need a hug but he threatens to throw her out if he doesn’t. As she flees to get this over with, this gross grown man actually tries to kiss this tiny traumatized seventeen-year-old and laughs at her terror. It is disgusting. He is the worst. He is, of course, the bad guy so from a writing perspective of course they’re going to show him bad things but it is nasty. Oh and as he watches her run he muses to himself about how pretty she is. Gross gross gross.

The time comes for Del’s meeting with Reverend Elder. Millie leads him inside to the kitchen, where she was just about to shave her dad but Del doesn’t mind her hanging out while the men talk. I’m not sure how I missed it the first time (yes I am, this movie is boring) but apparently Del is supposed to be recruiting people to join Bouquet’s guard and it’s not going well. It’s got nothing to do with the Natives, though. People around here are just Scottish and won’t join the British army on principle. Elder proceeds to make a bunch of excuses for the Paxton Boys’ behavior, like they’re just a bunch of drunk idiots and it’s not really about the Natives. This is clear nonsense because Wilse Owens exists and Del is concerned that they might target True Son. Elder’s idea of a solution is to “thoughts and prayers” all the evil intent out of them. Works every time, even in real life. Right?

They’re not the only ones hoping the Bible will impart some important lessons. Myra’s trying to teach True Son to read from it which sounds a lot more effective. He sits on the ground, which confuses her because there’s a perfectly good chair right there. He calls the ground “the lap of his Mother, the Earth,” a description that Myra is quite taken with. She thinks it’s so romantic that she asks for Delaware lessons once he’s mastered English, which is a far cry from how she acted in her first scene. Unsurprisingly, that scene was in the book and this one was not. The Disneyfication is strong with this one. Anyway, True Son agonizes over the trees he’s been chopping because Cuyloga taught him to think of trees as friends. This prompts Myra to praise Cuyloga’s parenting skills and True Son to finally acknowledge Harry as his father because that’s what Cuyloga would want, but he’s still worried about his soul. Myra promises that her white teachings will make sure his soul is in no danger and offers to let him read some passages. He reads big, archaic words very well for someone just learning English. Oh and then they bond over how the Lenni Lenape have a bunch of words for God compared to the English one.

Suddenly, a shot rings out. True Son races to the window and sees Wilse and his buddies using an effigy of him for target practice, complete with his beloved bearskin. Del’s there too, but he refuses to shoot the effigy. True Son races out to tear the racist statue down. Wilse gets ready to shoot him but Del knocks his aim askew, giving True Son the chance to rescue his bearskin. Del shoots the tomahawk off the statue and challenges Wilse to shoot the weathervane off the house. Wilse misses completely, Del nails it, and oh my god he’s Davy Crockett we get it.

After the shooting match, Del visits the Elders again out of concern for True Son. Mille offers him some apple pie and a listening ear. He’ll never be able to go back to the army as long as Wilse is around threatening True Son… but that might not really be what he wants anyway. Still, they just need a good reason for True Son to turn his back on everything he knows an assimilate already. Millie has the perfect solution: a girl!  So she decides to organize a dance so he can find a nice girl and settle down. It’s a foolproof plan.  After all, romance is all about dropping everything and focusing 100% of your energy on them.

A nice girl comes up to True Son before the party ever starts, while he’s sitting in the pasture plucking out the hairs that are starting to grow back on the sides of his head. Shenandoe has his old bearskin in her arms. She’s even mended the bulletholes. And how does this jerk repay her? By tackling her to the ground and silencing her horrified screams with his hand! Because that’s how you start your epic romance for the ages, especially when your heroine is an abused girl who’s already been assaulted once in this movie. He accuses her of lying to everyone by telling them her sister was scalped but she tells him the assailants weren’t Lenni Lenape. The writers clearly intended to show that there’s bad Natives but it’s incredibly jarring that that’s what gets them to stare all gooey-eyed at each other.

She spews a bunch of exposition about how Wilse forces her to do things under threat of selling her, and even calls it slavery. She’ll be free when she turns eighteen but it’s still horrifying to True Son. Instead of being the least bit sympathetic, though, he declares that he’ll never be a slave. Good for you, dude.  It’s not a ‘50s movie without recycled True Life Adventure footage, so a fawn prances out of the trees. True Son tracks it through the forest while Shenandoe follows, awed by the peaceful, bird-filled woods. It’s better integrated than most of the footage so far. The film quality and the colors at least look like they could conceivably be from the same movie. Anyway, the two teens find the mama doe in front of a beautiful waterfall and True Son waxes poetic about how beautiful nature is before white people ruin everything. Shenandoe goes full Disney Princess and sighs about how she dreams of freedom. If only she could stay in this beautiful woodland paradise forever…

We cut really abruptly to the dance, where some random girl hauls a reluctant True Son into the middle of the frolicking. Millie and Del are dancing too and far from romantic, Fess Parker looks like he’d rather be anywhere else. They keep peeking over to see how True Son’s doing, as does a visibly jealous Shenandoe.  The poor thing just wants to join in but she’s stuck pouring everyone drinks. Finally, Myra, who’s supposed to be an invalid, announces that it’s time to cut the cake. But this is no ordinary cake. One piece has a ring in it, and she makes sure to cut True Son an extra large piece so he gets it, even though there’s no way there’s enough cake for everyone as it is. Surprise, surprise, True Son gets the ring, and tradition says, and I quote, he has to “give it to the person he likes most” which is some very ambiguous wording that’s bound to confuse this boy who’s lived in a different society all his life. He tries to offer it to Del, which makes everyone laugh condescendingly even though Del has become a friend to True Son so of course he’s the person he likes the most. He’s been the only one even trying to give him time to adjust instead of punishing him for not knowing things.

Del awkwardly explains that it’s a romantic thing and he has to give it to the girl he likes the most… so why didn’t they say so? True Son gives the ring to Shenandoe and the peanut gallery catcalls at him for him to kiss her. Natives don’t kiss, so Shenandoe bursts into tears and runs away. True Son chases her and a very drunk Uncle Wilse chases him to punch him for having the nerve to pursue the teenage servant girl he treats like garbage. Shenandoe screams as the fight breaks out, alerting the guests. Uncle Wilse tries to say True Son attacked him first but everyone sees through the lie immediately. True Son runs away and Shenandoe finds him by the waterfall of lovey dovey mushy stuff. She tries to tell him not all white people are like this and the rest of them want this to be easy for him. True Son just wants to kill Uncle Wilse. He says it like eight hundred times. She wants peace, though, and advises him to keep her head down and not upset him. Spoken like a true abuse victim. Poor baby. True Son still wants to kill Uncle Wilse. She does have a point that “killing only leads to more killing” and he’s on a dangerous road that could very well lead to him becoming as bad as Wilse. Del followed along, too, and approaches after Shenandoe leaves to tell him she was totally right. True Son still wants to kill Uncle Wilse.

Del rides back and stops to ask Millie how to go about getting some land. She explains “tomahawk law” which basically means that if you write your name on a tree, that land is yours now. Yes, really. Manifest destiny is a hell of a drug. Millie is clearly hoping Del will settle down, but no, he just wants to buy the pretty waterfall of lovey dovey mushy stuff for True Son so he has a place to call his own. Clearly this whole “living in a settlement” thing isn’t working out. Still, Del just doesn’t know what to do after he finishes his assignment. The army isn’t really the life he wants, but he doesn’t know what is… though there is a girl who might give him some ideas. The two make out and I really don’t care. The next day Harry and Myra say their goodbyes to Del and promise that they’re on board with the plan to buy a waterfall. Next, he breaks the news to True Son, who’s super stoked and gets Del to promise to come back and hunt with him.

Shenandoe peeks in later to see if everything’s official yet. It’s not, but it won’t be long now. She wants to go with him when he builds his cabin (how?) but she can’t. The second she turns eighteen, she’s getting as far away from Wilse as humanly possible. Her wages will buy a new dress, and a new dress will make her more attractive to a husband. Because, you know, this is the ‘50s and that’s every girl’s highest calling. True Son already thinks she’s pretty and he doesn’t want her to marry anyone else and I still do not care. The two stare at each other for like ever and finally True Son leans in and… kisses her cheek. She’s sick and tired of his stoic Native American stuff and shows him how white people kiss. Twice. Get it, girl. But the makeout session is cut short by a gunshot. They’re under attack by a Native tribe!

But it’s okay, it’s not an attack. Half Arrow is here to visit True Son. Their mutual friend Little Crane came along, too, in the hopes of seeing his pregnant white wife. He takes True Son to find Little Crane in the woods… lying dead from one of the Paxton Boys’ bullets. True Son is now 100% drinking the Kool-Aid and decides they must have done something to upset the white settlers but Half Arrow swears it was unprovoked. I’m on Half Arrow’s side here, because Uncle Wilse storms out of the trees with his gun and we all know how much restraint he has. He confronts True Son about talking to his Native adopted family, and Half Arrow bolts. He’s not running away, though. He leaps back out of the bush for a surprise attack, snarling that he’s going to scalp him. In the book, he does scalp him, and I’m not advocating that per se but it was much more satisfying than what actually ends up happening.

As it is, Shenandoe rushes out of the woods to stop True Son doing something he’ll regret. I really, really don’t think he’ll regret it. He really wants to kill Uncle Wilse, after all. Anyway, True Son offers to take Shenandoe to the safety of the Native village but she cries that the Butlers are his people. You know, the white people he’s lived with for six months, not the Natives that took care of him his entire life. Nothing is more important than skin color. White people are always the right choice. Anyway, the other Paxton Boys show up and Shenandoe begs True Son to return to town. True Son runs away from the conflict before it can escalate, disappearing back into the woods with Half Arrow. He strips off his white clothes and tosses everything but his breeches into the river. He and Half Arrow laugh like teenage boys about the weird customs white people have that are so different from anything they know. Then they launch into a game of hurling rocks at his show to sink it into the river. It’s pretty fun watching them act like kids… and so we immediately ruin it. Half Arrow does a victory dance. And it is rough. Mostly they’re just running in circles and flailing their arms, which is totally not an offensive imitation of real rituals at all.

The boys spot a white trader’s cabin across the river. Half Arrow gleefully points out the canoes moored outside, eager to take revenge on the whites for taking Native goods to trade. True Son isn’t sure they should be doing this because this guy’s probably half Native (how could you possibly know that?), so Half Arrow decides that they’ll steal half his stuff. He swims out to the canoe and starts untying the rope, but the trader’s dog spots him and starts barking. The worst actor I’ve ever seen in my life emerges and scolds the dog for barking at a log floating down the river. The trader and the dog go back inside the cabin, allowing Half Arrow to drag the canoe back to shore.

With the canoe in hand, they can row down the river to the Lenni Lenape village much more easily. They bring the news that Little Crane was murdered, which kinda puts a damper on True Son’s return. Cuyloga is especially not happy to see his son because peace depends on him living in harmony with his white birthfamily. His only excuse is that he just couldn’t do it. And honestly? Fair. The rest of the tribe, led by Little Crane’s brother Niskitoon, is preoccupied with preparing for war to avenge Little Crane’s murder.  Cuyloga tells Niskitoon to stop this foolishness because the whole point of sending the white captives back was to ensure peace. This? This is not peace. Niskitoon snaps back that everyone knows the white people aren’t going to honor their treaty. They’re still settling on the lands Bouquet promised would be left to the Natives and that they did definitely attack his brother. And Disney. Come on. You’re like… this close to self-awareness. Cuyloga relents and lets the council vote on whether or not they should let Niskitoon lead them to war. And the council says yes.

Meanwhile, Del finally reports back to Bouquet. He’s done well and Bouquet’s about to reward him for a job well done with a promotion to captaincy. He quickly realizes that’s not much of a reward for Del, who would rather settle down. After all, they’re about twelve years off from war breaking out and there’s a whole lot of life that can’t be lived marching around the woods in peacetime. Bouquet is totally understanding about all of this because he is a good dude. Before he goes, though, it’d be really great if Del could chase the white settlers off the land they’re not supposed to be settling on. There’s a difference between an order and a favor, so Del leads a canoe full of dudes down the river. One of them has a ridiculously large coonskin cap. It’s glorious. They approach a cabin to confront the settlers but when they get there the whole thing is burnt to a crisp. Somehow, Del knows it’s the Lenni Lenape’s doing. I guess being Fess Parker makes you psychic?

However, he’s right. It was the Lenni Lenape, much to True Son’s consternation. Niskitoon is thrilled that they managed to scalp fifteen innocent white people, including children. He’s become no better than the tribe who murdered Shenandoe’s family and it’s all True Son can think about. He even confronts Niskitoon, but he’s ruthless and refuses to spare them. He spots a riverboat carrying a white family to their lands and has a wonderful, awful idea. He tosses True Son one of the dead settlers’ clothes and orders him to lure the family in. For now, he’s white, not Lenni Lenape. He obediently wades into the river and calls for help. The husband is suspicious, because True Son is calling them “brothers” and using the pidgin English that Natives are always portrayed as using, but the wife is a strong independent woman and a bleeding heart. She grabs a pole and starts rowing towards True Son to help him, thinking he was kidnapped. Niskitoon and the rest of the tribe watch with bated breath to see how this shakes out.

Suddenly, True Son has a change of heart. What the tribe is about to do to these people is monstrous- that woman is carrying a baby in her arms! He can’t let them get hurt. He screams that it’s an ambush and they have to turn back. His shouts enrage the war party who rushes out of the trees, shooting madly. True Son is quite literally caught in the middle. Cuyloga is furious as his son climbs out of the river in shame. The family, for their part, is completely unhurt and continues down the river like nothing happened. They run into Del’s party and tell him about the ambush. Del warns them that they really shouldn’t be settling here and it’d be better if they turned back and didn’t make more Natives angry. The father scoffs that he’s not following the King’s orders and he’ll settle where he wants thanks because this is 1764 and the Revolution is just around the corner. Also he’s a jerk. Eventually, the power of Fess Parker convinces the family to turn back but not before the husband realizes he recognizes True Son. Apparently he was one of the soldiers at the beginning and he saw him losing his mind attacking people every five seconds. Horrified, Del rows off.

True Son is now a traitor to the Lenni Lenape, and they’ve tied him to a stake with his face painted half black and half white to represent him being two-faced. The council votes whether or not to light the fire and burn him at the stake by tossing sticks at his feet. This is completely unclear in the film and the only reason I got it is because I read the book. Not great filmmaking, guys. The consensus is that he deserves to die but Cuyloga isn’t going to stand by and watch that. He gives this big epic speech about how he raised the boy so if they’re going to kill him they should burn their chief, too. He wants peace and by God he’s getting it so everyone needs to sit down, shut up, and stop fighting. A pointed glare gets Niskitoon to back off and let Cuyloga walk True Son away from the tribe. But True Son’s not out of the woods yet. Cuyloga walks him as far as the river and says this is goodbye. He’s saved his life this time but the tribe won’t let him return. Not only that, but if father and son face each other in battle again, they’ll have to kill each other. He’s no longer Lenni Lenape. So now what?

Del spots True Son swimming across the river and grabs him so he can convince him to return to Paxton. He refuses, so Del tries a little psychology: he’ll have to send a message to his family (he doesn’t have one) and someone has to tell Shenandoah he loves her. True Son doesn’t answer but Del can see right through his brooding. He continues that he’s just sure she’ll find another man to marry who will protect her from Uncle Wilse. That gets True Son talking: he wants to kill Uncle Wilse. We know, kid. Del continues on to remind him that not all the white people are evil like Uncle Wilse, and not all the Lenni Lenape are evil like Niskitoon. It’s kind of the central theme: there are good and evil people of all backgrounds. Skin color isn’t a hint of morality. Not a bad message, but the execution isn’t great. Also, True Son still wants to kill Uncle Wilse. Del says he’ll take care of it because He’s. Fess. Parker.

When they arrive at the settlement, the Paxton Boys’ target practice is in full swing. Wilse is furious to see Del leading True Son into the pasture but True Son has decided once and for all that he’s white. Wilse laughs in his face but Del defends him, breaking the news of the Native ambush that was totally Wilse’s fault for stirring them up with Little Crane’s murder. After all, all Little Crane did was try to see his pregnant wife no matter how much Wilse tries to spin the murder as self-defense. Seeing that no one believes him, Wilse squares up into that ridiculous ‘50s “put-up-your-dukes” stance. True Son prepares to fight back even though, as Del says, he knows nothing about fistfighting and Wilse quickly knocks him flat with one punch. The Paxton boys laugh and jeer so loudly that they wake Myra. Millie and Shenandoah hear, too, and shove their way into the crowd to offer advice. Shenandoah begs True Son to fight back but Millie has a better idea. She asks Del to translate her advice: don’t fight back, just dodge… for now.

Del’s Lenni Lenape words magically give True Son the strength of a thousand men and he easily filps Wilse onto his back. Now the crowd is egging True Son on as he beats Wilse straight into the ground. Shenandoah is particularly vicious about demanding that her uncle get beaten into a greasy smear on the grass. He survives the curbstomp battle, though, and staggers to his feet. He offers True Son a hearty handshake to congratulate him on being well and truly white. True Son has Wilse’s approval and that’s all anyone really wanted this whole time… oh wait no that’s stupid. You don’t make your protagonist conform to what the racist, murdering jerk thinks is acceptable! You challenge the racist, murdering jerk! What kind of happy ending is this? He learns no lesson! He gets no punishment! And this is how you resolve this plotline? Writers, what is wrong with you? Anyway, now that True Son has been accepted into white society, he and Shenandoah run off to the waterfall of lovey-dovey mushy stuff to practice kissing in both the white and Native styles. He’s got the girl, he has a place to belong, and everything is all happy ever after.

Well, it was better than the book at least. You can tell Disney was really trying to tell a culture clash story while showing virtue and vice on both sides. The trouble is, they didn’t really succeed. The vice on the white side isn’t punished at all and the virtue on the Native side kind of falls by the wayside by the end. There are also a lot of really unpleasant stereotypes which of course happen every time white people in the 50s breathe near other cultures but that doesn’t make it okay. Add to that some painfully stilted acting, a script that sounds like the writers had never heard a person talk before, and a really unsatisfying, abrupt ending and the overall experience really isn’t pleasant.

CHARACTERS

True Son/Johnny Butler is our main character but he doesn’t say much. Mostly things happen around him and he broods about them. I’m 99% sure there was like one scene where his facial expression changed, which made it hard to buy his journey or his growth. He’s played by a very young James Macarthur, who we’ll see a few more times and who would grow up to play Danno on Hawaii 5-0. Supposedly his acting improves later so I won’t judge him too harshly. He actually filmed The Light in the Forest during his summer break from Harvard.

Del Hardy is Fess Parker and really, that’s all you need to know. Good dude, rustic, squints a lot, the usual deal. Actually, by this point the typecasting was really starting to get to Parker. He’d been forced to give up more interesting, varied roles so Disney could have him play the same character over and over again. After this movie, he terminated his contract and left the studio, which is what I meant when I said this was the end of an era. Goodbye, Fess Parker! It’s been real, it’s been fun, but it hasn’t been real fun.

Shenandoah Hastings is True Son’s love interest and this poor girl needs a hug in the worst way. She’s a sad, abused orphan who dreams of a better life with a man she loves. It’s very romantic and very Disney, so its unsurprising that she was not in the book. She marks the first onscreen appearance of Carol Lynley, best known for The Poseidon Adventure. She just passed a few days before this review, too. RIP.

Millie Elder is there so Fess Parker has someone to make out with. Her entire personality is Girl. Have I mentioned I hate that? She’s so boring I forgot to write her introduction scene and can’t be bothered to fix it.

Half Arrow was pretty much the only person here who looked like he was having fun.  He’s True Son’s cousin and best friend in the Lenni Lenape village, and he’s always there enjoying his life and actually, like, being alive.  Unfortunately, this mostly manifests in a rather chilling bloodlust.  Every other line out of this guy’s mouth is about scalping people.  Can you maybe chill, dude?  His actor, Rafael Campos, is very clearly from the Dominican Republic. He’s not even trying to hide his accent. Of course, most of the other Native characters are played by white people but this really isn’t better.

“Uncle” Wilse Owens is one of the slimiest, grossest, most despicable characters I’ve ever seen. The unprovoked racism is enough for me to hate him but he objectifies and abuses poor Shenandoah so horribly that just… ugh. There are no words. And, okay, he’s the bad guy, so it’s all being portrayed in a negative light so normally that would make him a good villain (see: my love of Hunchback and its racist, sexist, skeevy villain). The problem is he gets no repercussion for anything. He learns to respect True Son as a white man. That’s it. No change of heart regarding Natives. No apology for Shenandoah. Nothing. At least in the book True Son got to kill him.

MUSIC

The score for this one was, once again, composed by Paul J. Smith from the True Life Adventures and a bunch of other stuff. This was not his finest hour. A lot of the score doesn’t seem to fit the scenes it’s supposed to be describing, like when Myra is threatening to lock True Son in her room until he says his name and there’s fun, quirky music playing. It doesn’t work.

The Light in the Forest is, like the songs from Perri, a peaceful, calming throwback to the 40s. I thought we were done with these choral pieces but apparently not. It’s actually a nice song with a nice message (“the light in the forest is love”, or you can always find happiness in your loved ones even when things are down). The problem is that that message doesn’t fit very well with what’s actually happening in the movie. The score plays the melody to this song several times throughout, mostly during scenes with True Son and Shenandoah. Maybe it’s supposed to be like she’s the light in a forest of confusion, racial tension, and war? Man, I don’t know.

I Asked My Love a Favor is the jaunty dance number that plays during the hoedown Millie throws to get True Son a girlfriend. It’s pretty irrelevant but it’s definitely catchy and informs the colonial setting well. It is, however, very long and contains some weird bouncy noises for some reason. It’s like a cartoon spring noise and it makes no sense.

ARTISTRY

Ellsworth Fredericks made a point of showcasing the beauty of the forest as much as possible. It’s particularly obvious in True Son’s little waterfall glen, which is shot in such luscious, rich color it looks like a completely different movie. It would work very well if the movie was trying to persuade us that True Son belonged in nature with the Lenni Lenape, but it’s not and the white settlement is mostly dark and muted. It’s like he was rebelling about how badly done the racial friction is.

THEME PARK INFLUENCE

photo credit

Okay, there’s not a whole lot.  But the Penomsquat tribe in Maine built a war canoe specifically for this movie.  Once filming wrapped, it was brought to Disneyland.  I can’t find any sources on where, but my guess would be the long-departed Indian Village.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Seriously, what on earth was that ending?  I can’t get over it.  It was the nail in the coffin of a movie I already wasn’t enjoying much.  It’s very fair for its day, and you can tell they were trying to be respectful, but it just edged a touch too far to the white side of the conflict.  With the exception of Shenendoah, the additions to the book in both plot and characters really served no purpose but to shoehorn a story into Disney’s wheelhouse that really didn’t need to be there.    Even without the racial angle, I’ve seen the same story done better a dozen times, and I felt like no one here could act.

Favorite scene: Half Arrow and True Son laughing about the white family’s weird habits.  There was so much pure teenage boy energy that it actually bought a smile to my face.  And then they did the victory dance.  Sigh.

Final rating: 3/10.  I get what they were trying to do.  It’s very commendable for a major film studio to attempt what they were trying to do in 1958.  The problem is, they failed.

Sorry this one got delayed.  I don’t have an excuse.  This movie was boring.