The Battle at Elderbush Gulch

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The Battle at Elderbush Gulch
Theatrical release poster
Directed byD. W. Griffith
Written byD. W. Griffith
Henry Albert Phillips
StarringMae Marsh
Lillian Gish
CinematographyG. W. Bitzer
Distributed byGeneral Film Company
Release date
  • November 1913 (1913-11)
Running time
29 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguagesSilent
English intertitles
Full film

The Battle at Elderbush Gulch (also known as The Battle of Elderbush Gulch) is a 1913 American silent Western film directed by D. W. Griffith[1] and featuring Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish, and Alfred Paget.

Plot[edit]

Orphans Sally (Mae Marsh) and her little sister are sent to live with their uncle in the west. Among other baggage, they bring their two puppies. Melissa (Lillian Gish) is in the same stagecoach with husband and newborn baby. The uncles find the little girls amusing but tell them that the dogs must stay outside. Meanwhile, a nearby tribe of Native Americans is having a tribal dance. The puppies, left outside in a basket, run off. Sally, worried about the dogs, goes outside and discovers they are gone. She follows their trail and runs into the tribal chief and his son who have captured them for food. There is a scuffle but her uncles arrive and intervene. Gunfire ensues and one of the Native Americans is left dead. The other returns to the tribe to inform them and aroused by "hatred to revenge" they go into a war dance.

Meanwhile, a tearful Sally has persuaded a friendly hand to build a secret door in the cabin so she can bring the puppies inside at night. The Native Americans attack the village and the frightened settlers run off toward the lonely cabin. In the melee, the baby is separated from its father. The Natives attack the cabin just after a scout rides off to alert the fort.

The Native Americans ride in circles around the cabin while the settlers try to fight them off. Melissa, in the cabin, is distraught worrying about the fate of her baby. Sally, seeing the baby through a peephole, sneaks out her secret door and finds the baby in the arms of a dead towns person. In a hectic battle scene, she brings the baby back through the secret door.

The settlers are running out of ammunition and the people in the cabin are in chaos. The Native Americans, crawling on their stomachs, almost reach the cabin, but then the cavalry arrives. The Native Americans are quickly dispatched and all is well but for Melissa's grief over her missing baby. Sally pops out of a chest holding baby and puppies. The uncle agrees to let Sally keep the puppies inside.

Cast[edit]

Scene from The Battle at Elderbush Gulch

Criticism[edit]

The movie has been noted for its pitting of white settlers vs. indigenous people, in particular an overarching concern for the safety of the white women and a baby during the gun battle. Major focus remains, however, on the prolonged shootout. Far from a nuanced presentation, The Battle at Elderbush Gulch dramatizes the settlers and the indigenous in many stereotypical ways -- simple, misunderstood, untrusting, quick-tempered, violent, vengeful -- that fit the fanciful perceptions of the American West at the time the film was made.[2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "Progressive Silent Film List: The Battle at Elderbush Gulch". Silent Era. Retrieved June 13, 2008.
  2. ^ Olson, Gerald Theodore (Spring 2013). The Evolution of an Image: An Analysis of Defining Depictions of Native Americans in Popular Cinema 1913-1970 (Thesis). doi:10.31979/etd.3u5z-kqjb.
  3. ^ Jay, Gregory S. (2000). "'White Man's Book No Good': D. W. Griffith and the American Indian". Cinema Journal. 39 (4): 3–26. doi:10.1353/cj.2000.0016. JSTOR 1225883. S2CID 145361470.
  4. ^ Melichar, Kenneth Edward (Spring 2009). The filmic Indian and cultural tourism: Indian representations during the period of allotment and forced assimilation (1987-1928) (Thesis).
  5. ^ "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch". Rotten Tomatoes.
  6. ^ "Reviews of The Battle at Elderbush Gulch". Letterboxd.[unreliable source?]
  7. ^ McLemore, Mark (June 10, 2016). "Native American Portrayals in Film History - AZPM". Arizona Public Media.
  8. ^ Nilan, Jack. "The Battle of Elderbush Gulch (1913)".[self-published source?]
  9. ^ Robinson, Cedric J. (2012). Forgeries of Memory and Meaning: Blacks and the Regimes of Race in American Theater and Film before World War II. UNC Press Books. p. 122. ISBN 978-1-4696-0675-0.
  10. ^ Sprouse, Rachel (2021). Silence, Sound and Subtitles: Exploring Quechua, K'iche' and the History of Indigenous Languages in United States Film and Television (Thesis). pp. 12–14.
  11. ^ Kennedy, Matthew (May 1, 2003). "Making History: D. W. Griffith on DVD". Bright Lights Film Journal.

External links[edit]

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