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{{short description|1916 film}}
{{Use American English|date=September 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2019}}
{{Infobox film
| name = The Aryan
| image = Aryan poster.jpg
| alt = Poster for The Aryan showing William S. Hart protecting Bessie Love
| caption = Theatrical poster
| director = {{Plainlist|
* [[William S. Hart]]
* [[Reginald Barker]]
* Clifford Smith
}}
| producer = [[Thomas H. Ince]]
| studio = [[Triangle Film Corporation]]
| writer = [[C. Gardner Sullivan]]
| starring = {{Plainlist|
* [[William S. Hart]]
* [[Bessie Love]]
* [[Louise Glaum]]
* [[Charles K. French]]
* [[Gertrude Claire]]
}}
| cinematography = [[Joseph H. August]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Love |first=Bessie |year=1977 |title=From Hollywood with Love: An Autobiography of Bessie Love |location=London |publisher=Elm Tree Books |oclc=734075937 |page=148}}</ref>
| distributor =
| released = {{Film date|1916|04|09|U.S.}}
| runtime = 50 minutes; 5 [[reel#Motion picture terminology|reels]]
| country = United States
| language = [[Silent film|Silent]] (English [[intertitle]]s)
| budget = $13,500<ref name="silentera" />
}}
'''''The Aryan''''' is a 1916 American [[silent film|silent]] [[Western (genre)|Western]] [[film]] starring [[William S. Hart]], [[Gertrude Claire]], [[Charles K. French]], [[Louise Glaum]], and [[Bessie Love]].<ref name="silentera">{{cite web|url=http://www.silentera.com/PSFL/data/A/Aryan1916.html|website=Silent Era|title=Progressive Silent Film List: ''The Aryan''|last=Bennett|first=Carl|date=May 5, 2012}}</ref>

The film was directed primarily by [[William S. Hart]] and produced by [[Thomas H. Ince]], with Hart also starring in the lead role. Though assisted by [[Reginald Barker]] and Clifford Smith, Hart largely oversaw the direction himself. His combined salary as actor and director was $150 per week ({{Inflation|US|150|1916|r=-3|fmt=eq}}).<ref>{{cite web|first=Hal|last=Erickson|website=AllMovie Guide|title=''The Aryan'' (1916)|url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/the-aryan-v84007|access-date=December 20, 2014}}</ref>

A partial print of the film survives in the [[Library of Congress]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lccn.loc.gov/93505398|title=[The Aryan—excerpts]|website=Library of Congress}}</ref><ref name="museodelcineba" /> and was restored at the [[Museo del Cine Pablo Ducrós Hicken]] in [[Buenos Aires]], [[Argentina]].<ref name="museodelcineba">{{cite web|url=https://museodelcineba.org/blog/hallazgo-y-restauracion-de-the-aryan/|title=Hallazgo y Restauración de "The Aryan"|website=Asociación de Amicos del Museo del Cine}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/05/movies/05metropolis.html|title=Footage Restored to Fritz Lang's ''Metropolis''|last=Rohter|first=Larry|date=May 4, 2010|newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref>

== Plot ==
[[File:Hart-william-the-aryan-1916.jpg|thumb|left|Denton (Hart) and Mary Jane (Love)]]
A hardworking miner, Steve Denton (Hart), has become wealthy after years of [[prospecting]]. He sets out to visit his ailing mother, Mrs. Denton (Claire).

In the town of Yellow Ridge, however, he becomes entangled with a dance hall girl named Trixie (Glaum), known as "the firefly." Trixie swindles him out of his gold and intercepts a telegram informing him of his mother's condition.

The following day, Denton learns that his mother has died. Devastated and enraged by Trixie's deception and what he sees as the betrayal of those around him, he kills her lover, Chip Emmett (Mayall), and abducts her. Dragging her by the hair, he takes her into the desert. There, in isolation, he enslaves Trixie and renounces "[[White people|white]] civilization." He declares hatred for white men and women, and assumes command of a group of [[Native Americans in the United States|Indian]] and [[Mexican people|Mexican]] bandits.

Two years later, a [[wagon train]] of lost and dying [[Mississippi]] farmers appeals to Denton for help. He refuses. That night, Mary Jane Garth (Love), an innocent and courageous young woman among the migrants, visits him in secret and pleads their case. She declares her belief that no white man would abandon a woman in need.

Her words stir Denton. He is moved to act, and guides the wagon train to safety. Once their survival is secured, he resumes his solitary life in the desert.<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/pictureplaymagaz04unse/page/n375|pages=234–245|first=Will H.|last=Johnston|volume=4|issue=3|date=May 1916|magazine=Picture-Play Magazine|title= The Aryan}}</ref><ref name="motionpicturenew132unse-n839" /><ref name="motography152elec-766" />

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* [[William S. Hart]] as Steve Denton
* [[Gertrude Claire]] as Mrs. Denton
* [[Charles K. French]] as "Ivory" Wells
* [[Bessie Love]] as Mary Jane Garth
* [[Louise Glaum]] as Trixie, "the firefly"
* [[Herschel Mayall]] as Chip Emmett
* Ernest Swallow as Mexican Pete
* [[Enid Bennett]]
* [[Jean Hersholt]]
* [[John Gilbert (actor)|John Gilbert]] as an extra (uncredited)
}}

===Cast notes===
Hart later reflected on his performance:

{{blockquote|I think the most disagreeable part I ever had was in ''The Aryan''. It was hard for me to really feel it, being that of a white man, forswearing his race, makes outlaw Mexicans his comrades, and allows white women to be attacked by them. It is difficult to put all one's decent instincts aside and live and think as such a despicable character must have done. But by allowing myself only to think of the terrible wrong that the white race had done me—pure imagery—I settled into it, and I am sure [[Bessie Love]] at the time believed I was the typical brute.|"Living Your Character" in ''[[Motion Picture Magazine]]'', May 1917{{sfn|Koszarski|1976|pp=47–48}} }}

== Production ==
Hart initially rejected the screenplay by [[C. Gardner Sullivan]] for lacking a clear motive behind the protagonist's harsh demeanor. He pushed for an explanation that would make the character's cruelty believable. Sullivan eventually agreed.{{citation needed|date=December 2019}}

Although silent, the script included long speeches, which were filmed and edited down.<ref name="csm" />

[[File:Bessie Love in the 1916 silent film The Aryan.jpg|thumb|Love as Mary Jane Garth]]
Hart wanted [[Mae Marsh]] for the role of Mary Jane, but she was unavailable. [[D. W. Griffith]] suggested newcomer [[Bessie Love]].<ref>{{cite book|first=William|last=Hart|title=My Life – East and West|url=https://archive.org/details/mylifeeastandwes006335mbp|page=[https://archive.org/details/mylifeeastandwes006335mbp/page/n257 220]|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Company|year=1929}}</ref>

The film was produced during the height of Hart's career, but was notable for casting him as a severe and unsympathetic figure. The title reflects the racial ideologies common in early 20th-century American cinema. Hart later described the character of Steve Denton as "a white man who, foreswearing his race, makes outlaw Mexicans his comrades and allows white women to be attacked by them."{{sfn|Davis|2003|p=[https://archive.org/details/williamshartproj00davi_0/page/84 84]}}

Filming took place at [[Thomas H. Ince#Inceville|Inceville]]<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/pictureplaymagaz05unse/page/n169|magazine=Picture-Play Magazine|page=156|title= The Picture Oracle|volume=5|issue=1|date=September 1916}}</ref> and in Sulphur Canyon.<ref name="csm">{{cite magazine|title=An Aryan in Sulphur Canyon|last=Love|first=Bessie|author-link=Bessie Love|magazine=[[The Christian Science Monitor]]|date=May 9, 1962|page=8}}</ref>

== Reception ==
[[File:Magazine advertisement for the film The Aryan (1916).jpg|thumb|Magazine advertisement]]
Early reviews were highly positive.<ref name="motionpicturenew132unse-n839">{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturenew132unse/page/n839|first=Oscar|last=Cooper|page=2064|magazine=Motion Picture News|volume=13|issue=14|date=April 8, 1916|title=Screen Examinations}}</ref><ref name="motography152elec-766">{{cite magazine|url=https://archive.org/details/motography152elec/page/766|page=766|magazine=Motography|volume=15|issue=14|date=April 1, 1916|first=Genevieve|last=Harris|title=Current Releases Reviewed}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |url=http://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1916-03-24_42_4 |title=Film Reviews |magazine=Variety |date=March 24, 1916 |volume=42 |issue=4 |publisher=Variety Publishing Company |page=[https://archive.org/details/sim_variety_1916-03-24_42_4/page/28 28]}}</ref> Acting, cinematography, and direction were praised.<ref name="motionpicturenew132unse-n839" /><ref name="motography152elec-766" /> Hart himself considered it one of his finest Westerns.{{sfn|Davis|2003|p=[https://archive.org/details/williamshartproj00davi_0/page/83 83]}}

More recent evaluations have criticized the film's racial themes. Scholar Andrew Brodie Smith called it "a sophisticated expression of racism in the Western genre."<ref>{{cite book|title=Shooting Cowboys and Indians: Silent Western Films, American Culture, and the Birth of Hollywood|first=Andrew Brodie|last=Smith|isbn=978-0-87081-746-5|location=Boulder|publisher=University Press of Colorado|page=[https://archive.org/details/shootingcowboysi00andr/page/166 166]|year=2003|url=https://archive.org/details/shootingcowboysi00andr/}}</ref> Others have identified it as one of the first films to explicitly endorse white supremacy over Native Americans.<ref>{{cite book|title=Racism, Sexism, and the Media: Multicultural Issues Into the New Communications Age|first1=Clint C. III |last1=Wilson |first2=Felix|last2=Gutierrez|first3=Lena|last3=Chao|date=2013|isbn=978-1-4522-1751-2|publisher=SAGE Publications |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=idI5DQAAQBAJ&q=%22the%20first%20film%20to%20openly%20proclaim%20the%20doctrine%20of%20White%20supremacy%20over%20Native%20American%20Indians%22 69] |chapter="Bamboozling" Stereotypes Through the 20th Century}}</ref>

== See also ==
* [[Racism in early American film]]
* [[Whitewashing in film]]

== References ==
;Citations
{{reflist|30em}}

;Works cited
* {{cite book|first=Ronald L.|last=Davis|title=William S. Hart: Projecting the American West|url=https://archive.org/details/williamshartproj00davi_0|url-access=registration|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|year=2003|isbn=978-0-8061-3558-8}}
* {{cite book|last=Koszarski|first=Richard|date=1976|title=Hollywood Directors: 1914–1940|publisher=Oxford University Press|lccn=76-9262}}

== External links ==
{{Commons category}}
* {{IMDb title|0006375}}
* {{AFI film|2165}}

{{Reginald Barker}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Aryan, The}}
[[Category:1916 films]]
[[Category:1916 Western (genre) films]]
[[Category:American black-and-white films]]
[[Category:Films directed by William S. Hart]]
[[Category:Films about race and ethnicity]]
[[Category:Surviving American silent films]]
[[Category:Silent American Western (genre) films]]
[[Category:1910s American films]]
[[Category:1910s English-language films]]
[[Category:English-language Western (genre) films]]

The Aryan - Revision history

imported>RosePickfair: /* Reception */ Resolving citation errors