A 1930s Western created by the Nazis. A year ago I would have told you no such film existed. But then I discovered the emperor in California.
As you can imagine I was incredibly sceptical of this film upon discovering its existence. Westerns
have always had an interesting (if not confrontational) relationship with certain minorities.
well I say certain minorities. But thinking about it a little more I realise that the old school westerns don't treat anyone all that well. Only the main star (sometimes his partner; other times his lover) and the occasional two or three good people who usually help him defend a town or stop the bandits. Otherwise everybody in a western movie is betrayed as dangerous, suicidal and vindictive. It doesn't matter if they're Native Americans, the Irish, African slaves or even Chinese migrants who came to the country to fix up a railroad. Everyone's a slimming piece of garbage.
Then you combine that with the National Socialist!
I was expecting to see some sort of Horror Show movie. Where the American expansion
was going to be led by our German-born character to fight the evil red men. But oddly enough such a thing never happens. In fact this might have one of the nicest depictions of Native Americans* in all old western films. I just want you to think about that for a minute. A film created by the real Nazis portrayed Native American people better then most of the American films that'll come out in the next 50 years. What the hell is wrong with that picture?
The film itself is pretty straightforward. A character by the name of John Augustus Sutter moves to America in search of his fortune. He had a ghost of one of his ancestors showing him images of the future and the Glorious land of California.
First half of the movie is just him and a group of his friends making it across the ''no man's land'' in search of the Sutter's Mill territory (later to become Sacramento). They eventually end up with the Mexican Colonial forces and become a settlement under them. Then the Americans take over and the settlement is transferred over. Eventually gold is discovered and the greed of this gold inevitably destroys the entire settlement leaving our character John destitute.
He travels to Washington DC and dies in front of a statue of Abraham Lincoln. In his dying moments he Witnesses his ancestor (who told him to go out in search of new land) and informs him that his that his work wasn't in vain. Than shows him the images of the Glorious modern-day America with its vast buildings in massive industrial complex.
The story was kind of based off a real event. There was a man by the name of John Sutter who did travel to the California to establish a fairly wealthy territory in which he was inevitably driven out because of a gold rush.. But in the film all of his children are dead, where is in real life one of his children would go on to make greater success than he could ever dream of.
The film also has him go by his original name of Johan the entire time. Which wasn't true the real life either. He did change it to John in an attempt to anglicised his identity.
The first half of the movie isn't the most engaging of spectacle. It's a bit slow as John and his party of men wander through the American territory. Though it might have been more interesting to the people at the time. A lot of this movie was filmed on location and in areas that weren't just unknown to the German populace but may have been even mystifying. The idea of a cactus and the Great American frontier was something they only read about in Western fantasy novels or occasionally heard about as a subject of some political science.
Really it's the second half of the film that gets the ball rolling. Once the Americans move in as the conquer the Mexican territory. And the Gold Rush is discovered thus turning man against one another in a desperate bid to make as much quick money as humanly possible. In fact that seems to be the underlying message of this entire movie. Don't pan for gold or look for simple and short-sighted wealth. instead work hard and dedicate your time too long-term building, farming and other means of production.
It's a pretty good message for a film. A shame that it's coming out of the mouth of Nazi propaganda. But then you know the old saying ''A stopped watch is right twice a day.'' Maybe we can just call that the true German work ethic and divorce this message from the Nazis who often took shortcuts in economic, military and political Affairs to push whatever crappie agenda they needed to move.
*There's a part of the film where are character John is talking to a group of Native Americans. He's giving them money for their help in the capture of some Bandits who had stolen John's horse at a previous time. He's talking to them in English. But the strange part is the rest of the film is done in German. The characters in Germany speak German, the characters in America speak German. And at first you just think; ''okay they're probably speaking English, but it's translated over the German so that the general audience can understand.'' open why have John speaking very clear American English to the native folks? It's the one part of the film that just doesn't make any sense to me.
He travels to Washington DC and dies in front of a statue of Abraham Lincoln. In his dying moments he Witnesses his ancestor (who told him to go out in search of new land) and informs him that his that his work wasn't in vain. Than shows him the images of the Glorious modern-day America with its vast buildings in massive industrial complex.
The story was kind of based off a real event. There was a man by the name of John Sutter who did travel to the California to establish a fairly wealthy territory in which he was inevitably driven out because of a gold rush.. But in the film all of his children are dead, where is in real life one of his children would go on to make greater success than he could ever dream of.
The film also has him go by his original name of Johan the entire time. Which wasn't true the real life either. He did change it to John in an attempt to anglicised his identity.
The first half of the movie isn't the most engaging of spectacle. It's a bit slow as John and his party of men wander through the American territory. Though it might have been more interesting to the people at the time. A lot of this movie was filmed on location and in areas that weren't just unknown to the German populace but may have been even mystifying. The idea of a cactus and the Great American frontier was something they only read about in Western fantasy novels or occasionally heard about as a subject of some political science.
Really it's the second half of the film that gets the ball rolling. Once the Americans move in as the conquer the Mexican territory. And the Gold Rush is discovered thus turning man against one another in a desperate bid to make as much quick money as humanly possible. In fact that seems to be the underlying message of this entire movie. Don't pan for gold or look for simple and short-sighted wealth. instead work hard and dedicate your time too long-term building, farming and other means of production.
It's a pretty good message for a film. A shame that it's coming out of the mouth of Nazi propaganda. But then you know the old saying ''A stopped watch is right twice a day.'' Maybe we can just call that the true German work ethic and divorce this message from the Nazis who often took shortcuts in economic, military and political Affairs to push whatever crappie agenda they needed to move.
*There's a part of the film where are character John is talking to a group of Native Americans. He's giving them money for their help in the capture of some Bandits who had stolen John's horse at a previous time. He's talking to them in English. But the strange part is the rest of the film is done in German. The characters in Germany speak German, the characters in America speak German. And at first you just think; ''okay they're probably speaking English, but it's translated over the German so that the general audience can understand.'' open why have John speaking very clear American English to the native folks? It's the one part of the film that just doesn't make any sense to me.
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