CHILDREN OF THE DUST

US, 1995, 180 minutes, Colour.
Sidney Poitier, Michael Moriarty, Joanna going, Billy Wirth, Regina Taylor, Jim Caviezel, Farah Fawcett, Hart Bochner Robert Guillaume, Shirley Knight, Grace Zabriskie.
Directed by David Greene.

Children of the Dust is a 1990s television miniseries. It is a post-Civil War story, focusing on the American Indians, their being overcome by the military, the allotment of lands, supervision by agencies, movements towards rebellion and self-assertion. it is also a story about American Blacks in the aftermath of freedom from slavery. It is a story about white families from the American South and issues of racism, the Ku Klux Klan, lynchings and violence.

The length of the film enables it to have a great deal of attention given to the various plotlines. What binds it all together is the presence of Sidney Poitier, in his mid-to-late 60s, portraying a gunslinger who has parents who are Indian as well as black. He is shown negotiating with the Indians, dismayed at a military massacre, rescuing the son of the chief and enabling this boy to grow up in an Indian agency but with opportunities for progress in the white world. Later, he is asked to accompany a group of black settlers in a land race so that they can find land and to build their town, Freedom. It is in this context that we see the activities, lynchings and castrations, by the Klan.

The first part of the film shows the Indian agent, sympathetically played by Michael Moriarty, and his subdued wife, Farah Fawcett, from Baltimore, who defines the west as oppressive. There are two children who grew up with the Indian boy, the sympathetic Rachel who is in love with him and the bigoted Dexter who is against him. The Indian is played by Billy Wirth and the brother and sister by Joanne Going and Jim Caviezal.

The film shows the progress in the 1880s and 1890s, the building up of towns – and the children of wealthy white families who were ambitious for the towns but also resentful against the Blacks, racist, and using the Ku Klux Klan.

There are some interesting subordinate characters, a sympathetic Regina Taylor is the woman who teaches the gunslinger to read, Shirley Knight as the manager of the white household presided over by Hart Bochner.

The film is directed by David Greene who made many films and television movies and also Godspell.

1. A post Civil War story? The Indians, their lands, the agencies? The freedom for the slaves? The role of the military? Rabid racism in the South, the Ku Klux Klan? The land rides and land claims? Progress towards the end of the 19th century? A 19th-century American story?

2. The film presented as a miniseries, the various lines of plot? The title and its reference?

3. The locations, the West, the Indian agency? The town of Guthrie? The homes, the town and its growth, business buildings, mansions, the opera house? The Indian reservation land? The land race and claims? The building of the town of Freedom? The mountains, the finale, the cave? The musical score?

4. The focus on Gypsy Smith, Sidney Poitier in his late 60s? Part Indian, part black? His career as a gunslinger, the memories of his past, his marriage, the death of his wife and son? Friend of the Indians, a friend of the chief? Going to interpret with the chief, the guns, the massacre, his saving the boy, taking him to the Maxwells? In the barn with the boy, leaving and going on his work? Time passing? The Negroes and the request for him to accompany those on the land run, his refusal, listening to the negotiations, the bigotry, his shooting? The information from Rose and her background? Going to the group, preparing for the run, the encounter with Drusilla, the attraction, his learning to read from her? The run itself, the ride, the dangers, the Negroes and their land claims, the town of Freedom? Building it up? Gypsy becoming the sheriff? The incident with the boys and the young white girl, the father brutalising her, charging the boys with rape? Gypsy saving them, hiding them? The attack by the men, the burning of the town, the boys lynched? The Ku Klux Klan, the disguise, the members under the sheets? Gypsy being shot, castrated? The effect on him, silent and morose, recovering, hard with Drusilla, her wanting to help? His going for vengeance? The man with the Indian girl, capturing him, the threat of hanging, getting the information? The confrontation with the sheriff and shooting? His resting with Drusilla, a lying by his side? His saving Corby and Rachel? In the cave, his decision about his death?

5. Maxwell, his work as an agent, in the West, his wife, who coming from Baltimore, finding the West too difficult, the wind, no trees? Her racist and bigoted outbursts? Her children, the story of the wife killing herself and her children? The growing despair, hanging herself, Rachel finding her?

6. The Indian boy at the Maxwells, the name of Corby, at the table, Rachel and her fondness for him, Dexter and his hostility? In the barn, the bed, Gypsy helping him? Growing up, his place in the white world, the possibilities for his career, going to study in the East? His love for Rachel? His father’s release, his decision to go with his father? Riding with the Indians, with his horse that he tamed? His not being welcome in white society, even Maxwell thinking it not appropriate?

7. Dexter, the thief, his job, teaming up with Hornbeck, his being his yes-man? His racism? Attitude towards Rachel, spurning of Corby? Part of the Klan? In the final confrontation tween Hornbeck and Rachel? Her later telling the story of his lonely death?

8. Maxwell as the agent, his wife, the children, kind, taking Corby in, yet the difficulty in accepting him for Rachel later, his freeing the captured Indians, going to the cave to plead with Rachel?

9. Rachel, as a little girl, sharing with Corby, relationship with her mother? Hopes, love for Corby, his leaving? Her going to St Louis? Education, fashion? Her return, meeting with Hornbeck, his desire for her as his wife? Prospects? With Corby, the relationship, the sexual encounter, the dirt on her dress? Pregnant? The wedding? Her life, the formalities, place in society, the regime by aunt Bertha? Getting the key, the locked cupboard, finding Hornbeck’s Ku Klux Klan sheets? His beating her? The confrontation in the barn, her having the gun, the shot, killing Hornbeck? The escape?

10. Hornbeck, his ambitions, his memories of the Civil War and the deaths of his parents, anti-Negro? Ambitions, wealth, the trophy wife, his thugs, the Klan, castrating Gypsy? Exposed, in the barn, his death?

11. Whites in the Southern West? The results of the war, freedom? The Blacks, deaths, lynching? Society not accepting mixed race?

12. The men of the West, the whites, the sheriff, the gunfighters?

13. The Blacks, freedom, the meetings, the plan for the land run, Gypsy and Drusilla? The town of Freedom?

14. The cave, the military, Maxwell pleading, Gypsy coming out and being shot? The cannon fired at the cave and Corby’s death?

15. Rachel and Drusilla and their visiting the cemetery at the end?