The White Caps

The Snow Leopard review really says it all. I'll add that I agree this is an unpleasant, disturbing movie, though powerfully made for its day. The editing and cinematography are inspired by the standards of 1905, even including a tracking shot of the abused wife stumbling for shelter.

Such old films like this one, "The White Caps", which take on matters of justice, morality and social order, can be interesting, outrageous, and even offensive today. The racist "The Birth of a Nation" (1915) is the most obvious example of a film that many people once considered truthful or moral, but is now widely criticized for its immorality. Edwin S. Porter, Wallace McCutcheon and the Edison Company, the makers of this film, also made a comedy based on racist stereotypes, "The Watermelon Patch", the same year. The previous year, they satirized eugenics (a pseudoscience invented by racists and classists) in "The Strenuous Life; or, Anti-Race Suicide". "The White Caps" especially reminds me of another early film, made across the Atlantic, "Is Spiritualism a Fraud?" (1906). In it, a spiritualist medium is assaulted and publicly humiliated by being paraded downtown while bound. As in "The White Caps", vigilantes punish a wrongdoer extra-judiciously, swiftly and violently.

Reportedly, the white caps were real organizations of vigilantes around the time of this film and located mostly in rural communities. Although the white caps they wore to hide their identities and their violent and clandestine methods remind viewers of the Ku Klux Klan, the gangs supposedly didn't necessarily hold ideals of a racist social order, although I think it's safe to assume many of them did. In this film, they tar and feather a wife beater. As the historians on the "Edison: the Invention of the Movies" DVDs say, the film doesn't allow most viewers a comfortable position to identify or align themselves with. We may want the abusive man to be punished, but we don't want him tarred and feathered. A chase sequence, as the white caps try to capture the accused, consequently, is rather horrific for such a primitive film.

The chase was a very common plot in early cinema and the Nickelodeon era, in comedies and dramas. The chase and the rest of "The White Caps" is, overall, well paced for its time--with 14 shots and some extended panning.

White Caps, The (1905)

*** (out of 4)

Historically interesting film that deals with the vigilante group known as "The White Caps" who were known throughout Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. Like the KKK, this group wore white pillows over their faces but instead of attacking race this group went after those who broke moral issues like beating their wives, harming children and other crimes that make for a bad community. This film shows them going after a man who has just beaten his wife.

Little Train Robbery, The (1905)

*** (out of 4)

Porter remakes his own The Great Train Robbery but this time kids are playing the leads in a childish tale of acting out a robbery. While this certainly isn't as good as the film its based on it remains cute throughout with some nice stunts and scenery.

Seven Ages, The (1905)

*** (out of 4)

Cute little love story that shows a couple over seven ages in their lives from babies to old folks. There's not too much story here other than the two's love for one another but this comes off quite nicely.

Grainy as to be expected for such an early film. I viewed this movie online at some point. It's a bit disturbing for it's time. I was interested and intrigued Lionel Barrymore was listed in it.

But it's in error that the abusive husband is listed in the cast as Lionel Barrymore (uncredited), It's not him. This was 1905. He did not start make his debut in films until 1911. He was most likely living in Paris by 1905. He went there to avoid stage and film work for a number of years. So it makes no sense that would be him. I've seen many of his early Silents and it does not favor him here at all. Not sure who that actor was.

It's difficult to tell what the original motivation and perspective were behind the short drama "The White Caps" - that is, just from watching it, you cannot quite tell for certain whether it was made to approve of the activities of the "White Caps", to condemn or at least to warn about groups like them, or simply to portray them and allow viewers to make up their own minds. What is sure is that it is an effective and frightening depiction of vigilante action, and it is a drama that would likely leave many present-day viewers with profoundly mixed feelings.

The first sight of the vigilantes in their costumes is unsettling, and it immediately calls to mind the notorious racially-motivated groups that used similar methods. And yet, you immediately find out that here their target is not at all a member of any minority group, but rather is an abusive, brutish lout of a husband who has repeatedly beaten his wife and traumatized his child. The wife and child themselves are completely sympathetic characters.

The confrontation that follows between the vigilantes and the abusive husband provokes a lot of mixed emotions. The man deserves no sympathy for what he has done, and yet it is frightening to see how little concern the vigilantes have for legality or due process. Their enthusiasm for punishment also makes you wonder what their own motivation was. The movie was filmed with good technique for 1905, and thus the tension and turmoil are rather convincing through all of this.

One thing that this short drama does is to remind us of how widespread this kind of incident used to be. At the time, vigilante groups of various kinds seem to have been much more common than they are now, and this depicts the particular type that once arose largely in protest to the legal authorities' apparent inability to handle certain crimes such as domestic abuse.

From today's perspective, it is interesting that, an entire century ago, these vigilantes target an offense that only recently is finally beginning to get the official attention that it warrants. This is, honestly, an unpleasant film to watch (despite having been made with some skill), yet perhaps it can serve a purpose if it makes some of its viewers think about some of the troubling moral and legal questions that it raises.