The Battle of Elderbush Gulch

It's hard to imagine that "The Battle of Elderbush Gulch", directed by the legendary D.W. Griffith, was made a way back in 1914. It is a showcase for Griffith's emerging style.

The story centers around a group of settlers called the Cameron Brothers and their families which include a young waif (Mae Marsh) sent out from the east to live with her uncles and a young wife (Lillian Gish) who has just given birth. A group of Indians tries to capture the waif's pet dogs and are driven off by the men folk. During the confrontation the Indian Chief's son (Henry B. Wathall) is killed. The Indian chief plots his revenge and launches an attack on the small community of Elderbush Gulch.

It is this attack, which is quite brutal and graphic for this or any other time, that forms the core of the picture. The Indians slaughter the towns folk, women and children alike and drive them out of town towards the Cameron's homestead. The newborn baby becomes separated from its mother and all hell breaks loose. Someone goes for help and returns in the nick of time with the calvary.

The battle scenes contain some graphic violence. For example, we see a woman being scalped alive and there is also a sequence where we see a horse being shot down. I have never seen an animal being slain so convincingly on screen. Mr.Griffith was becoming a master of staging large scale battle scenes, a talent that he would use extensively in his epic Civil War drama, "The Birth of a Nation" released the following year.

Even though it runs a scant 29 minutes, "The Battle of Elderbush Gulch" is nonetheless an exciting and historic bit of film making. See if you can spot Lionel Barrymore and Harry Carey in bit parts.

There are several story lines in this film and shows some of the techniques that D.W. Griffith would be famous for (iris, capturing action up close and from a distance, etc.). This film has a few names that would become well-known, Mae Marsh, Lillian Gish, and Lionel Barrymore. Sally (IMDb has her as "Hattie" (Marsh) and her sister are sent to join their uncles on the "frontier" - taking with them two puppies.

One of the uncles won't allow the puppies to stay in the cabin. Meanwhile, at the Native American village, the natives are celebrating "The Feast of the Dog", which is apparently, the day they all eat dogs. I don't know if any tribes were eating dogs, some cultures do, and the Indian tribe of Griffith's imagination ate dogs - at least once (you don't actually see any dogs being killed, cooked, or eaten). Part of this celebration apparently is the stereotypical dancing (hiring a choreographer seems to never entered the discussions). The chief's son and his friend arrive late and try to find some dogs to eat. They soon come upon Sally's puppies, she tries to save them, and gunfire soon starts up.

The Native Americans start a war dance - this time they seem to be a bit more coordinated. A war party rides toward the whites' settlement.

Meanwhile, back at the cabin, Lillian Gish's husband (Robert Herron) takes their baby to show him or her off to some of the other settlers.

The Natives ride into town firing rifles (this is where some of Griffith's more interesting shots come in to play - capturing what looks like a much larger battle taking place). There is some hand-to-hand combat taking place in the small town. When the people at the cabin hear about the attack, Gish becomes hysterical and tries to find her baby. The men who have the baby try to take shelter in a barn and "a Mexican" (William A. Carroll) rides to the nearby fort. He also appears to mount a horse and ride off in less than a second - it's either bad editing or a few frames of the film is lost.

The Natives set the barn on fire, forcing the people inside to flee. The man holding the baby is killed just outside the cabin. In the midst of a lot of smoke and confusion, Sally (aka Hattie) sneaks out of the cabin to try to save the baby.

Will the cavalry get to the cabin in time to save the remaining settlers? Will the Natives scalp anyone? You'll have to watch to find out!

Directing over two hundred short one/two reelers for Biograph Company beginning in 1908, the studio's premier director, D. W. Griffith, by the fall of 1913 was getting discouraged from being restricted in creating longer, feature films. He was witnessing epic movies imported from Italy shown to packed audiences and felt his talents were being wasted in directing 15 to 30 minute films for Biograph.

Before he left the only movie studio he ever worked for, Griffith directed one of his final career short films, October 1913's "The Battle of Elderbush Gulch." The movie would prove to be his last in a long line of westerns he directed.

Griffith's portrayal of Native Americans varied through his Western canon. At times, such as 1909's "The Redman's View," the director/writer was sympathetic towards the Indians' plight against Western Civilization's incursion into their homelands. In "Elderbush," however, he resorts the stereotype image of the savage bent on eating domesticated dogs and attacking and killing white civilians for revenge.

Whatever private feelings he harbored for the Native Americans, Griffith would perfect his cinematic skills in cross-cutting and camera placements to heighten the visual excitement of the Indian raid. Many elements seen in "Elderbush" would be duplicated in his "Birth of a Nation," especially its conclusion, as well as in "Intolerance," Griffith's masterpiece.

Given the limited cinematic methods available in 1913, this is an impressive achievement, and it still makes for pretty good viewing today. It's also interesting in that its perspective is largely morally-neutral (except perhaps from what today's viewers might read into it), so that the excitement comes mostly from the danger of the situation, rather than from one side being entirely right and the other being entirely wrong.

The build-up to the battle is done rather well, enabling you to identify with the characters, while making some points of its own. Neither side in the confrontation is really in the right, yet Griffith's technique arouses your keen interest in the events to come.

But it is the filming of the actual "Battle at Elderbush Gulch" that is so noteworthy. To create such a sensation of action, turmoil, and emotion using the limited camera field of the times is remarkable. There are a lot of carefully chosen and composed shots, and Griffith also adds in some techniques that were new or relatively new at the time. There are several well-chosen 'iris' shots, and a variety of close-in and distant camera fields that pull you in and out of the action as the director wishes.

It's a fine achievement for its time, at the very least in technical terms, and would probably be well worth a look today for those with an interest in silent movies.

10 years after what is, arguably, the first western of all time, "The Great Train Robbery", D.W. Griffith (who is, perhaps, the most important filmmaker of all time) put his own spin on the western genre with his 30 minute masterpiece "The Battle at Elderbush Gulch".

Bullets going off! Horses running around! Cowboys and Indians in a fierce battle! This action packed western has almost everything you'd want out of an action packed western, and it is all presented in an only 30 minute runtime!

However, the plot, itself is really flawed, mainly because of how weird it is. It portrays Native Americans in a horribly stereotypical and downright offensive light (like how the African Americans are portrayed in Griffith's controversial epic "The Birth of a Nation"). They literally feast upon dogs, which triggers the whole battle. It is really weird and, overall, possibly the worst movie plot I've ever seen be paired with such an exciting and great movie!

While it is a bit racist, it is still engaging, entertaining, and historically important! Possibly Griffith's best short film.