In colonial America, wanderer Deerslayer gets involved with Tom Hutter, a bigoted trapper, and his two contrasting daughters.In colonial America, wanderer Deerslayer gets involved with Tom Hutter, a bigoted trapper, and his two contrasting daughters.In colonial America, wanderer Deerslayer gets involved with Tom Hutter, a bigoted trapper, and his two contrasting daughters.
Storyline
Did you know
- Quotes
Hetty Hutter: Then you're not sure then that the Hurons will give him up.
Deerslayer: Well, that depends upon what they want most: Old Tom or the scalps of their dead.
Harry March: What makes you think they want them scalps at all?
Deerslayer: Well, all Indians are superstitious, Hurons more than most. They believe that the spirit of the scalped warrior can never rest until the scalp is reclaimed.
Harry March: And then you can't go to the Happy Hunting Grounds without your hair on, huh?
- ConnectionsReferenced in The Deerslayer (1978)
in CinemaScope and Color by De Luxe and a memorable score by Paul Sawtell and Bert Shefter.
At the time, I thought this film was marvellous and very exciting, especially the Indian attack on the fort in the middle of the lake. Me and my pals had a new hero in The Deerslayer and incorporated him into our games of cowboys and Indians in which some of us would play the Hurons, mown down mercilessly by the musket fire of the other boys.
This may seem very strange now to younger readers of this site who can't remember the 1950's, but this was the way it was then. Throughout our childhood, we had been indoctrinated by the cinema into believing that what would now be considered racist ideas about native Americans were correct. They were represented as "squalling polecats" and "savages" and "heathens", not as people. Just as anonymous targets to be mown down. A hindrance and a thorn in the side of white settlers pushing the frontier Westward.
So this film is a product of its time and should not be judged by our modern standards. There had been the very isolated film like BROKEN ARROW, that gave a more accurate and sympathetic view of the American Indian, but for every BROKEN ARROW, there were a dozen films of the calibre of THE DEERSLAYER; THE GUNS OF FORT PETTICOAT and DRAGOON WELLS MASSACRE. I do not think that our ideas as children about Red Indians would have been considered racist in 1957, because we kids had never heard that word at that time. But I like to think that we've all grown up a lot in our knowledge and attitudes since then. After all, I realise now that the Indians were fighting for their land, which was being stolen from them by the whites and fighting to preserve their way of life. They had a right to fight back. Looked at today, THE DEERSLAYER may look corny and racist, but it was filmed in 1957, not 2003. For it's time, then, a rousing Boy's Own adventure that would have been popular with juveniles. Modern boys in the eight to thirteen age bracket, though, probably wouldn't like it.
- HONEYWALL1
- Jul 30, 2003
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Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Lederstrumpf - Der Wildtöter
- Filming locations
- Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, USA(Bass Lake)
- Production company
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime1 hour 18 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1