‘The Taking’ Review: This Land Is Not Your Land

Whether it’s John Wayne movies or Chevrolet adverts, Monument Valley has been immortalized within the American creativeness as a logo of this nation’s huge potential. “The Taking,” a brand new documentary directed by Alexandre O. Philippe, examines the location’s difficult place as a illustration of the Old West regardless of being situated on Navajo land.

In the movie, photos and clips of films, TV exhibits and promoting campaigns which have historically featured Monument Valley are accompanied by voice-overs that designate how white cowboys have been seen as heroes and Native Americans as aggressors, obscuring a historical past of genocide and oppression.

The movie argues that maybe nobody has been extra central to this effort than the director John Ford, who used the area because the backdrop for his western films, with the dramatic panorama evoking and perpetuating beliefs of freedom and liberation central to his tales of rugged cowboys and villainous “Indians.”

Obscured on this delusion making is the truth of the Navajo individuals, a lot of whom nonetheless dwell within the area with out working water or entry to secure incomes. “The Taking” is profitable in demonstrating the best way by which Monument Valley has turn into a canvas onto which the general public can superimpose their very own concepts and myths. But had it included extra present photos of the area and the realities of the Navajo individuals, it might have been more practical in changing these myths, going past movie evaluation to altering creativeness.

The Taking
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 16 minutes. In theaters.