#ManCrushMonday #MenBeingCivilBadAsses Norman Foster and "Navajo" (1952)

Norman Foster already had a successful career before "Navajo" (1952). He had written and directed 7 out of the 9 "Mr. Moto" movies and many others until directing and writing the working title of "The Voice of the Wind." What became "Navajo" chronicled a seven-year-old boy who resents the white man but especially when it becomes law for all the boys to go to school. When he tries to sell his pocketknife for food when all the children is supposed to be in school, Son of the Hunter goes on the run when he is discovered by The White Counselor and Billy, a Ute guide, in the marketplace.

Most of the film was filmed on the Navajo Reservation in northeastern Arizona, Canyon de Chelly, Death Canyon and the trading post Chinlee. It was in Chinlee where the film was screened first as part of an American Red Cross fundraising drive. The production cost itself remains a mystery. Contemporary sources say $24,220 and a total of $51,000 at the end of post-production, but other sources quote $100,000. 

Navajo Doctor Harry Tschopik, Jr. reviewed the film in Screen stating that "the film makes no pretense at documenting Navajo culture in its entirety, although details of Navajo belief, custom, and history are introduced in a casual, realistic manner whenever they are pertinent to the plot." It won the top award at the Edinburg Film Festival and won twenty-six national awards. For all of the mixed reviews, the film was nominated for two Academy Awards for Documentary Feature and Virgil E. Miller won for Best Black and White Cinematography. A.W. at The New York Times called it a compassionate study and "an indirect plea for understanding -- on both sides -- [with] no preachment. It is basically [...] an unusual, truly picturesque and convincing look."