Diving into the IMDB Lists That Spark Retro Inspiration
I visit frequently visit IMDB for various reasons. Most of the time, it’s to find out info on a movie that I am blogging about but, there is another gem that the Internet Movie Database offers – lists. I’m sure there’s an algorithm behind IMDB too but a list of B Movies caught my eye recently. I read a few titles which led me to Scalps from 1983. I’ve said it before, when it comes to Westerns, I’m just into Clint Eastwood’s stuff. You can read my blog on Fistful of Dollars here. Anyway, the poster art looked cool, the idea of scalping people has always been interesting, and it’s about Native Americans, which I dig, so, I jumped in (for free) on YouTube. Get your tommy hawk, bow, and arrow, and jump on your horse for a warpath ride into Scalps.
A Cultural Twist: Native American Themes in Scalps
I think I missed my calling in so many ways in life. Anthropology is something I would have really enjoyed. I mean cultural anthropology specifically. I dig me some culture. First and foremost is the Japanese culture and right behind that is Native American culture. If I had 10 lifetimes, I would spend at least one of them on a Navajo, Cherokee, and Apache reservation really learning the culture. I would learn the language, the food, the customs – I would absorb it all. Watching a good Western movie about Indians instead of cowboys seemed like a good idea. While this switch-up is a good idea, that doesn’t mean the film is good because I would not say Scalps was. Even though the premise was cool – a female native taking revenge for her tribe – the movie didn’t live up to its potential.
Stereotypes Explored: Insights on Scalping and Survival
Going forward in this blog, please understand something and I’m echoing the previous paragraph. I would love to be a cultural anthropologist but, I am not. So, I must base the following observations for the most part on what I consider to be stereotypes of Native American cultures. I mean no offense with this but, it’s the only baseline aside from, spending hours of time researching, that I can go by for my comparison. As we move forward, please keep this in mind because I don’t know how accurately any of these observations reflect actual Native American cultures. Mel Gibson may have been the closest in Apocalypto. I suppose the idea of scalping people, which happened, is legit too. You can read about this practice here if you’re interested. With my stereotypes ahead disclaimer behind us, I’ll write on.
First, regarding stereotypes, I haven’t heard the word “paleface” in forever. Scalps used this designation so much that I couldn’t help but laugh. Did natives actually call the white man this? Do they still say this? Is this a racial slur for natives against Caucasians? The main character, Yarin played by Mapi Galan, is an amazing trap maker. She knows all the plants in a desert to make medicine from and to eat. Her ability to shoot a bow with lethal precision is crazy. Yarin was able to hide well and in one scene she sits back straight in “Indian style” on a rock while talking Master Yoda-ish. Scalps includes all these stereotypes. There is another stereotype presented in Scalps that I do think is likely accurate. However, I don’t know that it was presented well in this B movie.
Real or Reel? A Look at Authenticity in Scalps
I don’t work for a cartel, belong to the Hollywood elite, or work for the government so capturing people is not something I do. Of all the prisoners to have to watch, it would be a Native American one in their element. If they escaped, you would likely never find them. They knew the lay of the land better than you and didn’t need a map. Living off the land is what they did so, you couldn’t’ starve them out. Hunting food every day to survive made them masters of stealth and concealment – they literally practiced this to live. Tracking prey would make them great at tracking but also great at counter-tracking. In other words, they would know what a tracker would be looking for and could conceal these things to make finding them even harder. This is what I found to be a true stereotype in Scalps.
I have not graduated from SERE school nor ever been but, I have read and watched a lot about this training. A couple of things I’ve learned that I saw Yarin fail at were fire-making and silhouette against the horizon line. If you are running from someone, making a fire is a terrible idea. If it’s a must, you would use a Dakota fire pit for less visibility. In the middle of a desert night, you’d be seen from miles away. When you move, you never want your silhouette above the horizon line because this too is a great way to be seen. Yarin does this frequently.
She did do at least one thing right from my SERE studies and another that I found very creative. She used a branch to sweep over their footprints which is a good idea if you don’t make the “sweeping” obvious. I liked that she uprooted plants and replanted them to cover their entrance point into some grass. This would create a much more realistic fit, thus it would more likely be overlooked by trackers. How much time did she have to do something like this though? If your tail is too close, you can forget a move like this.
Explosive Arrows and Warpath Revenge in Scalps
The last few minutes of Scalps was a Rambo knockoff. I’ve blogged on First Blood and Rambo: First Blood Part II. You can read each of these blogs at their linked titles. Anyway, Rambo fans know the tale. Yarin in the closing scenes of Scalps is picking off the Confederates one by one. She even goes so far as to use a pongee trap reminiscent of the jungles of Vietnam. The biggest similarity and comedic highlights come with Yarin using dynamite strapped to arrows. Yes, just like John J’s ballistic arrows, she has exploding arrows. I imagine that dynamite would make a much larger explosion than is shown. Also, strapping dynamite onto an arrow would change the trajectory significantly and I find this unrealistic and super dangerous – I’m not buying this at all. I’m still chuckling about this.
When Costumes Go Wrong: A Retro Movie’s Shortfall
Costume fails, at least that’s what I’ll call them here, have been some of the best and worst things in movie history. Any fan of John Carpenter’s Halloween knows the story of the William Shatner mask becoming the iconic Michael Myers face covering. If you want, you can watch the recount of this story here on YouTube. Anyway, costumes were certainly a failure in Scalps. It looked like they went to the local Halloween costume dump store and purchased everything from the wigs to the Native American tunics. The Confederate soldier uniforms also looked costume store-bought. There was very little authenticity presented in the garments worn by characters in Scalps.
Finding Viewing Pleasure in Trash Films Like Scalps
I’ll close on some good notes. Scalps reminds me in some ways of the Manse Jolly story. Jolly is a local character who went on a real-life revenge escapade. You can read his story here if you are interested. Yarin’s cloak was cool in design, and I really liked the pattern. There are plenty of lever-action rifles and old-school cowboy pistols. There’s one scene that has a score that I could swear old-school Disney wrote. It really stands out in that it completely doesn’t fit. I laughed out loud listening to this background tune. This was another “spaghetti western” being filmed in Rome, Italy but don’t get it confused with Eastwood. All in all, Scalps was just a movie that I watched and will likely never watch again. I don’t watch these movies expecting classics though. This makes watching and reviewing these old trash films fun.
Thank you for taking the time to read this artist’s thoughts on Scalps. I invite you to follow my art journey on social media, visit my website, and consider supporting and buying my work here. If you liked this blog or the movie, please share. Also, feel free to comment, especially if you are a fan of this one. I’m curious too, if you’re a fan, why? This film scored higher than I expected on IMDB but, I’m not sure why. Peace.