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Northwest Passage: a tough portrayal of frontier warfare blighted by racism Northwest Passage: a tough portrayal of frontier warfare blighted by racism
(7 months later)
Northwest Passage (1940)
Director: King Vidor
Entertainment grade: D
History grade: C 		Northwest Passage (1940)
Director: King Vidor
Entertainment grade: D
History grade: C
Rogers' Rangers were an independent company within the British army during the seven years' war in North America.Rogers' Rangers were an independent company within the British army during the seven years' war in North America.
UniformsUniforms
Fictional mapmaker Langdon Towne (Robert Young) meets a fellow who appears to be dressed as Peter Pan. It's 1759, so Peter Pan won't be invented for another 143 years – which may be why this doesn't freak him out as much as it should. He accepts Peter Pan's offer of hot buttered rum, and awakes the next morning to find he has joined the British army. Peter Pan turns out to be Major Robert Rogers of the Rangers (Spencer Tracy). The costume department got carried away with the Rangers' uniform, which in real life was a simple green jacket rather than something fit for a boy who won't grow up.Fictional mapmaker Langdon Towne (Robert Young) meets a fellow who appears to be dressed as Peter Pan. It's 1759, so Peter Pan won't be invented for another 143 years – which may be why this doesn't freak him out as much as it should. He accepts Peter Pan's offer of hot buttered rum, and awakes the next morning to find he has joined the British army. Peter Pan turns out to be Major Robert Rogers of the Rangers (Spencer Tracy). The costume department got carried away with the Rangers' uniform, which in real life was a simple green jacket rather than something fit for a boy who won't grow up.
WarWar
Rogers leads his men to the French-allied Abenaki village of St Francis, 180 miles north through a hostile wilderness. Their task is to wipe out the village, in revenge for what the real Rogers called the "barbarities" the Abenaki had inflicted on the British. The screenplay – drawing from the guts-and-glory novel on which it is based – gives one Lieutenant Crofton the lines about Abenaki warfare which are supposed to justify this genocide. "Phillips had a strip of skin torn upwards from his stomach. They hung him from a tree by it while he was still alive … They tore my brother's arms out of him. They chopped the ends of his ribs away from his backbone and pried them out through his skin, one by one." Even spoken rather than shown, this is strong stuff for a big-budget MGM movie in 1940.Rogers leads his men to the French-allied Abenaki village of St Francis, 180 miles north through a hostile wilderness. Their task is to wipe out the village, in revenge for what the real Rogers called the "barbarities" the Abenaki had inflicted on the British. The screenplay – drawing from the guts-and-glory novel on which it is based – gives one Lieutenant Crofton the lines about Abenaki warfare which are supposed to justify this genocide. "Phillips had a strip of skin torn upwards from his stomach. They hung him from a tree by it while he was still alive … They tore my brother's arms out of him. They chopped the ends of his ribs away from his backbone and pried them out through his skin, one by one." Even spoken rather than shown, this is strong stuff for a big-budget MGM movie in 1940.
RaceRace
The movie's presentation of the raid on St Francis as a heroic act is historically questionable, and it isn't helped by the unceasingly racist depiction of all native Americans as degenerate subhumans. "Them Mohawks had pelts half as good as a weasel, they'd be worth shooting," snarls one British soldier, who is supposed to be a sympathetic character. The Mohawks were Britain's allies.The movie's presentation of the raid on St Francis as a heroic act is historically questionable, and it isn't helped by the unceasingly racist depiction of all native Americans as degenerate subhumans. "Them Mohawks had pelts half as good as a weasel, they'd be worth shooting," snarls one British soldier, who is supposed to be a sympathetic character. The Mohawks were Britain's allies.
More warMore war
It was 3am on 6 October 1759 when the real Rangers attacked St Francis. In the film, this has been shifted to a more Technicolor-friendly time of day. St Francis is shown to contain no Abenaki women and only one (male) child, who is saved and taken prisoner. In history books, and in the novel, the Rangers were less clear about sticking to General Jeffrey Amherst's order to spare women and children. In 1940, MGM likewise thought it was just fine for a hero to massacre native men, but the sight of Spencer Tracy gleefully plunging a bayonet into the chest of a five-year-old girl might have taken things too far.It was 3am on 6 October 1759 when the real Rangers attacked St Francis. In the film, this has been shifted to a more Technicolor-friendly time of day. St Francis is shown to contain no Abenaki women and only one (male) child, who is saved and taken prisoner. In history books, and in the novel, the Rangers were less clear about sticking to General Jeffrey Amherst's order to spare women and children. In 1940, MGM likewise thought it was just fine for a hero to massacre native men, but the sight of Spencer Tracy gleefully plunging a bayonet into the chest of a five-year-old girl might have taken things too far.
CannibalismCannibalism
The Rangers stumble back through the wilderness, facing starvation. Northwest Passage is surprisingly disgusting on this point, and thereby true both to the novel and to history. Lieutenant Crofton hoards something in his knapsack, eating bits of it at intervals. Don't watch this film on a full stomach: it turns out to be the head of an Abenaki warrior. Real-life Rangers George Campbell and Robert Kirkwood said human bodies were eaten on the raid, including an Abenaki woman who may have been killed for that purpose. Contemporary historian Thomas Mante, working from Campbell's first-hand account, wrote that some Rangers found the mutilated remains of their own comrades by a river: "But this was not a season for distinctions. On them, accordingly, they fell like cannibals, and devoured part of them raw; their impatience being too great to wait the kindling of a fire to dress it by."The Rangers stumble back through the wilderness, facing starvation. Northwest Passage is surprisingly disgusting on this point, and thereby true both to the novel and to history. Lieutenant Crofton hoards something in his knapsack, eating bits of it at intervals. Don't watch this film on a full stomach: it turns out to be the head of an Abenaki warrior. Real-life Rangers George Campbell and Robert Kirkwood said human bodies were eaten on the raid, including an Abenaki woman who may have been killed for that purpose. Contemporary historian Thomas Mante, working from Campbell's first-hand account, wrote that some Rangers found the mutilated remains of their own comrades by a river: "But this was not a season for distinctions. On them, accordingly, they fell like cannibals, and devoured part of them raw; their impatience being too great to wait the kindling of a fire to dress it by."
ExplorationExploration
The search for a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has little to do with what's going on in this film. At the end, Rogers announces his intention to find one. This was supposed to be the sequel, and indeed its own title card announces it as Northwest Passage (Book I - Rogers' Rangers). Though it was a hit with audiences, it had cost too much to make. MGM canned Book II – and, just as in real life, no northwest passage was ever found.The search for a northwest passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific has little to do with what's going on in this film. At the end, Rogers announces his intention to find one. This was supposed to be the sequel, and indeed its own title card announces it as Northwest Passage (Book I - Rogers' Rangers). Though it was a hit with audiences, it had cost too much to make. MGM canned Book II – and, just as in real life, no northwest passage was ever found.
VerdictVerdict
It's an impressively rough and tough look at frontier warfare, but Northwest Passage's historical judgment is skewed by its racism.It's an impressively rough and tough look at frontier warfare, but Northwest Passage's historical judgment is skewed by its racism.
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