A Massacre…Really!

I thought I’d go back in history a bit for my first official film discussion.

I came across The Massacre on YouTube over the weekend and thought I’d take a look.  Produced in 1912, The Massacre was written and directed by D.W. Griffith (who must have been somebody, because the post office issued a 1975 Stamp in his honor, long before they started putting cartoon characters on stamps).

The Massacre goes like this: A freakish-looking army scout, whom I’ll call “Steve,”  abruptly proposes to a water-wading pioneer woman (let’s call her “Debbie”), suggesting she accompany him to “the New Country” (somewhere west of where they were at the time….now they call it California).  The look on Debbie’s face says that she thinks Steve’s idea is crappy at best (although I can’t be sure….it’s a silent movie). Not 30 seconds later (Steve was only 1/2 way through his proposal), another man on a horse (Chuck) shows up asking for water. Debbie (who either has highly questionable morals or low self-esteem) decides that Chuck the stranger is a better catch than Steve, who she’s known at least two minutes longer. Steve (yes…STEVE!) gives his blessing for Debbie to marry Chuck the thirsty stranger. THIS ALL HAPPENS IN THE FIRST SCENE!

We quickly learn that it wasn’t the thought of boarding a wagon train for California that repulsed Debbie…it was just the thought of marrying Steve…because Chuck manages to talk her into boarding the very same wagon train, WITH their new baby, but WITHOUT Chuck (I’m not clear where he went, but he’s out of the picture for the time being). Steve must really be a LOSER!

On a positive note, since this is a silent movie, the baby’s crying doesn’t keep Debbie awake at night, and let’s face it…it’d have to be an incredibly smooth wagon train ride for the baby NOT to be crying, a lot!

The wagon train, heading through dangerous country, is assigned a military escort for protection. You guessed it….It’s STEVE!  Anyway the entire wagon train gets massacred by a tribe a vengeful Indians (hence the film’s title). Steve manages to ensure the safety of Debbie and the baby, by hiding them under a pile of dead bodies (a result of the massacre), including his own. And then Chuck rides up on his horse and takes Debbie and the baby to the safety of the New Country. The End.

The Massacre was 30 minutes of silent torture. (Although there was music, I’m pretty sure that Beethoven, having died long before the invention of moving pictures, did not write his Fifth Symphony specifically for The Massacre). The good news is that it was ONLY 30 minutes. The NBC series, Wagon Train, ran for eight seasons, and still got cancelled before that train ever reached it’s final destination (that baby would have been crying into adulthood).  A massacre could have really helped to speed things along.

So I’m through with silent movies.