Indian Paint

I waited 42 years to see this movie. My mother wouldn't let me when it came out, and it has been virtually impossible to find it on video until I checked Netflix. I was very fulfilled to be able to watch my childhood hero Johnny Crawford in this movie finally. I'm sure Native Americans would not agree with much of the content in here by today's standards, but by the standards of 1964, it was fairly agreeable. The Indians were fighting one another, and there is no conflict with "the White Man." It's an improbable story of a boy and his horse but I sure enjoyed it. If you watch carefully, the horse, as both a colt and an adult, are played by several different horses.

I find it hard to believe that I watched this movie being filmed in 1963 on location and have never seen the movie.

I was in a boy's camp that went out for a few days of camping. We ended up along the Brazos River, I believe and the movie company ended up right beside us. Some wild donkeys (or loose donkeys) came into our camp while we were gone on hike and ate our food in camp. The people with the movie company invited us to eat with them and that's how I met Johnny Crawford face-to-face. He was a really nice kid (he was only 3 years older than me) and we all were big Rifleman fans. We ate with him and he talked to us and it was just like a bunch of kids sitting around. He didn't act stuck up or anything. I also got to meet Jay Silverheels of The Lone Ranger fame, who played Crawford's father. I had never seen a movie being filmed before and it was a magical experience for me. The one vivid memory I have is that the Native American actors had rubber-tipped arrows and lances. I couldn't figure out how they wouldn't look rubber in the movie so now I'll have to see the movie and find out.

The title doesn't exactly help this, but it's still a decent observation of the growing up of a young man "Nishko" (a fresh-faced looking Johnny Crawford), the son of a chief who must contend with many of the travails a youth has to deal with - only this time, the film takes the perspective of this young native American boy. The location cinematography is glorious to look at - and there is an innocence to the plot and a simplicity to the dialogue that lends a bit of charm to the story as the young man has to make some very tough - and brave - choices that I wouldn't envy. Of course, there is little jeopardy to the plot and at times it runs to sentiment just a bit too much, but it's still quite an enjoyable, almost Disney-esque, coming of age story.

Our entire family has enjoyed this film for the past 20 years. Two generations of kids have all loved it. Both girls and boys are fascinated by the story and ask lots of questions about the history and culture portrayed. It's a nice change from "cowboy" movies, since it is about Indians (Native Americans) during an earlier time period, before the arrival of Europeans.

I watched several reruns of this as a 6th grader in 1975 on local programming in St. Louis, so I'll write my review from a 9 year-old's perspective.

"Indian Paint" is a family-oriented movie about the trials and tribulations of a native-American boy's "coming of age". The characters maintained my interest and the plot was filled with the twists and turns that make a kid's movie thrilling, however far fetched.

The cinematography, costumes, and stunts are typical of the era and I quite enjoyed it. I didn't consider this film a "western", even though it fits the genre in the sense of "the west"-- it's not your typical protagonist / antagonist with villains-type of western.

The relationship between the main character and his horse is so moving that I thought the movie was called "Painted Pony"-- instead, that's a little tune that actor Johnny Crawford sings and hums in the film. I quite enjoyed that and it stays in my memory to this day.

It's not PC to native-Americans, and it's historically incorrect, as many point out, but it's my belief that films like this generated interest for our native-Americans.

I would recommend this for kids / family, as well as adults who are nostalgic or don't mind the un-pc angle. I would definitely watch it with my pre-adolescent kids if I had any ;-)