| The Symbol of the Unconquered (The Wilderness Trail) | |
|---|---|
 Contemporary newspaper advertisement. | |
| Directed by | Oscar Micheaux |
| Written by | Oscar Micheaux |
| Produced by | Oscar Micheaux |
| Starring | Iris Hall |
Release date |
|
Running time | 54 minutes; 7 reels (silentera has it at 8 reels, IMDb says 5 reels) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | Silent (English intertitles) |
The Symbol of the Unconquered (also known as The Wilderness Trail) is a 1920 silent "race film" drama produced, written and directed by Oscar Micheaux. Premiering only a few years after The Birth of a Nation, the film was advertised for its negative depiction of the Ku Klux Klan.[1] It is Micheaux's fourth feature-length film and, along with Within Our Gates, is among his early surviving works.
The film is based on the way perceptions of race shape human relationships.[2][3] It contrasts the behavior of two white-passing characters towards other members of their race.[1] Heroine Eve Mason (Iris Hall) moves to a frontier town and befriends her black neighbors, while the villainous Jefferson Driscoll scorns the company of all other black people, even rejecting his own mother. A romance grows between Eve and young black prospector Hugh Van Allen, but he believes Eve is white and hides his feelings from her. When Driscoll and friends enlist the KKK to run Van Allen off his oil-rich land, Eve saves the day by riding into town for help. Two years later, Van Allen is a successful oil king; Eve delivers a letter revealing her black ancestry, and the two are able to declare their love for each other at last.
The Symbol of the Unconquered was made at Fort Lee, New Jersey, and released by Micheaux on November 29, 1920. A print of the film is extant at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
- ^ a b Bowser, Pearl; Spence, Louise (2001). "Oscar Micheaux's The Symbol of the Unconquered: Text and Context". Oscar Micheaux and His Circle: African-American Filmmaking and Race Cinema of the Silent Era: 81–96. ISBN 9780253021557. JSTOR j.ctt1b7x4wf.
- ^ Symbol of the Unconquered at SilentEra
- ^ The American Film Institute Catalog Feature Films: 1911-20 by The American Film Institute (1988).