Braveheart is a 1925 American silent contemporary Western film directed by Alan Hale Sr. and starring Rod La Rocque. The story focuses on members of a tribe of Indians who are being intimidated by the owners of a canning company seeking to violate a treaty protecting the tribe's fishing grounds. Braveheart is a remake of the 1914 filmStrongheart directed by James Kirkwood Sr. and produced by the Biograph Company.
History
Braveheart was directed by Alan Hale Sr. and produced by Cecil B. DeMille's production company DeMille Pictures Corporation. The movie was initially named "Strongheart" after a play written by Cecil's brother William C. deMille and produced on Broadway in 1905. Stage actorRobert Edeson had portrayed the leading role in deMille's Broadway play. However, as the success of the play continued, a remake of the 1914 film was undertaken. Nipo T. Strongheart, early in his work with Native American topics, was hired as a technical adviser, and he included elements referring to the Yakima Nation and had the hero succeed in preserving Indian fishing rights, a topic of recent interest to the tribe. The original movie was 30 min long, and the revised movie was 71 min. However, as the project neared completion the name a canine star had already appeared as a canine star. Subsequently, the Alan Hale film was retitled and released as Braveheart. Nipo T. Strongheart played a small role in the film as a Medicine Man. Strongheart suggested to the movie's screenwriter Mary O'Hara additions of Yakima history to the story. Braveheart's initial treatment was credited to C. Gardner Sullivan, a prolific screenwriter who had worked with producer Thomas H. Ince. American author and playwright Elmer Blaney Harris was a contributing writer and suggested numerous changes for Braveheart. Advertising for performance-lectures of Nipo Strongheart would occasionally have him in Indian costume as well as in a scene from the movie where he was dressed in normal attire. The leading character of the movie was not dressed up in Indian costumes because it was a contemporary story. The lead role was performed by Rod La Rocque. One scholar said had said that:
The court sequence is heavily and multiply textualized… conveying legal arguments and judgments that refer to treaties.… the judge's decision parses the meaning of the treaty text itself: "We have examined the Federal treaty with the Indians and find that it gives them the right to fish where and when they please, without limitation by State tax or private ownership."
