Grimossfer Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Aneesa Wardle The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Quiet Muffin This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de) I am actually a bit surprised this 20-minute short film from 1922 is among Buster Keaton's more famous works. Here, over 90 years ago, he was in his mid-20s directing, writing and starring in this one. The problem with him is that his character rarely manages the levels of charm, humor and sweet love stories from Chaplin's movies, although he's probably at least as talented as his fellow silent film pioneer. So it's usually the story that has to save Keaton's films from mediocrity. And when it does not, like here, the overall result is rather disappointing. I assume the popularity of this one mostly comes from the fact that it's as historically significant as it's a bit of guilt processing of how Native Americans were mistreated by Indians in the past.In any case, Buster runs in the middle of a conflict between oil barons and Indians and soon finds himself at the stake. However, his will of survival and one of the Indian squaws manage to save him and he soon joins the Indian's side. Chase sequences and the final confrontation between the two parties are the core of the film, but I wouldn't recommend it to people willing to get into Keaton's work. There's better choices out there.

robinakaaly Any spoilers are in references to Buster's sight gags. The inventive genius of Buster Keaton never ceases to amaze. Though not one of his greats, this short is full of some brilliantly observed gags, many of which are cleverly set up during the film: (a) being chased by the Indians and all stopping while he inspects a wasp which stings him; and the gag with the butterfly net and the chief; (b) moving the stake while the firewood is being piled up to the consternation of the wood gatherer who eventually gets knocked out by the stake when Buster bends over; (c) the rope bridge across the canyon which Buster crosses by moving the few slats one at a time; (d) when Buster is caught by the oil executive who wants to change clothes with him, Buster produces a small leafless tree to provide no privacy; (e) whilst doing the war dance in the oil company office, stopping to explain to an Indian how the dance should be done; (f) crawling after an escaping executive and about to scalp him, when the exec lifts off his toupee. Buster takes it to the chief who is mightily impressed; (g) when he jumps out of the tree, the Indians suddenly produce a firemen's mat for him to land in (as used by Eric von Stroheim in Foolish Wives); (h) the gates to the Indian encampment, knocking out pursuers by swinging the locking bar up then down. Many of the sight gags done for real, and hardly ever bettered, will, as one reviewer notes, turn up later as staples for everybody's cartoons. For example all the ones on the mountains. Also, the film is certainly not racist: it is clearly on the side of the Indians, and Buster takes an Indian girl and kisses her for two years(!) at a time when he couldn't have done that with a black girl. (The reference to the scantily clad tribe having lost their clothes in a game of strip poker is not racist.)

ccthemovieman-1 This Buster Keaton short didn't have a ton of laughs but it had enough to suit me. The gist of the story is an Indian tribe getting their land taken from them by corrupt oil men and Buster getting it back for them.Along the way, he proves himself to be a superhuman "god" by surviving being burned at the stake. (A fire-proof asbestos suit did the trick!) Later, he's involved in warring tribes. Through a decent portion of the film, he is being chased by either of the tribes. Chase scenes are always funny and these in this movie are no exception. Some of these sight gags elicit hardy laughs. In the end, Buster not only saves the Indians' land but gets a pretty "squab," too!This is good slapstick and another example of why some people - me included - think Keaton's short movies, generally speaking, were better than his feature films. Some reviewers here label this one "cute and silly" and I would agree with that.

Mike-764 An Indian tribe is being forced off their land by an oil drilling company. Hearing this, the Indian chief swears revenge, ordering death to the first white man who passes onto their land. It wouldn't be much of a short, if Buster wasn't the one who passed through. After surviving a burning at the stake (thanks to a handy sheet of asbestos), the tribe takes in Buster as one of their own, and through accidental luck, the land is recovered. Not really as funny as some of Buster's other shorts, but there are some nice sight gags and a very dangerous stunt (Buster falling some 60 feet off a cliff, actually filmed in two parts.) Rating, based on shorts- 6.