Once More with Feeling...

Redskin was amazing.

What I really enjoyed was that they established character with more dialogue and a deeper story.

It's not that I didn't enjoy the other films we've watched so far, but i was constantly begging for an even better film. After we watched Within Our Gates, I was basically screaming "once more with feeling!!"

What I liked most about Redskin was that the characters were very distinct. I didn't know that sort of character development and establishment was possible as such in silent films. I say bravo.

One scene in particular that I feel strongly about is the scene where the film jumped 10 years into the future. I think that though, at first, it wasn't clear who these adults were, I believe that they framed it and sequenced it in the perfect way that I knew exactly who they were. The only detail that I had a problem was that the actors playing adult Wing Foot and adult Corn Blossom looked too much like, basically, white people with a slight tan, not a tan, but a slight tan. Other than this small detail, I had no problem relying on my experience of sequencing to be convinced that the people on screen were the two kids fro the previous frame.

In addition to this, the sole fact that a silent film made a "time jump" without title or footnote made this film even more commendable to my taste. I was really excited for what the film established in the first ten minutes; i wanted more to happen. "More" is what I got.

I was really satisfied with the climax of the story, specifically the fight scenes. I was glad that I could see the fight scenes from different angles, the way that they are framed today. I was worried that they would be similar to previous "fight" sequences where it's basically a steady-cam filming one long continuous shot without movement.

This brings the next point that I want make, the shots in Redskin were significantly shorter than the ones in previous films. Even if there were long continuous shots, at the least, there would be something happening that would be a reason to not cut away to a next frame, and then, on top of that, usually the long shots would be panning shots anyway, like the shot of Wing Foot running, trying to race the two guys to make claims for the oil.

Other than that, I'm really enjoying these films....keep them coming.