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Reviews
Indian Paint (1965)
"Indian Paint" is a family-oriented movie about the trials and tribulations of a native-American boy's "coming of age".
I watched several reruns of this as a 6th grader in 1975 on local programming in St. Louis, so I'll write my review from a 9 year-old's perspective.
"Indian Paint" is a family-oriented movie about the trials and tribulations of a native-American boy's "coming of age". The characters maintained my interest and the plot was filled with the twists and turns that make a kid's movie thrilling, however far fetched.
The cinematography, costumes, and stunts are typical of the era and I quite enjoyed it. I didn't consider this film a "western", even though it fits the genre in the sense of "the west"-- it's not your typical protagonist / antagonist with villains-type of western.
The relationship between the main character and his horse is so moving that I thought the movie was called "Painted Pony"-- instead, that's a little tune that actor Johnny Crawford sings and hums in the film. I quite enjoyed that and it stays in my memory to this day.
It's not PC to native-Americans, and it's historically incorrect, as many point out, but it's my belief that films like this generated interest for our native-Americans.
I would recommend this for kids / family, as well as adults who are nostalgic or don't mind the un-pc angle. I would definitely watch it with my pre-adolescent kids if I had any ;-)