When discussing how the West was won, the narrative is that the white man stole land from the Indians and then used slaves to build it into an empire. This film says something very different and it’s all true. I was sitting next to a bored Puerto Rican chick in the theater who was chewing bubble gum and regularly checking her phone. I wanted to lean over and say, “Do you see the planes? Do you see these boats? Can you comprehend these incredible inventions of man and all the immense good and bad such machines can achieve? Do you see that history wasn’t simply us versus them? It wasn’t white versus nonwhite but a tangled conglomeration of all tribes fighting back and forth to achieve their various ideas of liberty. Do you see how much you owe Western man?” I didn’t bother because, well, you know what would have happened. She would have said, “You don’t know me. Why you want to talk like you know me?”
