Amber Midthunder, the star of the new Hulu Predator movie, Prey, responds to the haters and claims that the movie is super woke.
The film sees Amber Midthunder playing a teen female Comanche Warrior who is able to take out a Predator.
“I think a lot of people thought our movie would be some super-woke, F-the-patriarchy kind of a story, and that’s not what it’s about at all,” she told People. “It’s not a girl defying what men say she can and can’t do. It’s literally an individual who feels called to something and the people who know her don’t think that is her calling. That is so much more personal and, I think, as the character, harder to deal with than anything.”
Did the Comanche have female warriors?
Amber Midthunder continues and says people don’t know their history.
“People don’t know a lot about native history. Period. So they don’t know what kind of warriors we were,” Midthunder continued. “They were known for being some of the fiercest warriors of all. And they did have female-warrior society, so there were women that fought and hunted.”
Well, a quick check on the Comanche reveals the following (via bigorrin.org – “Comanche Indian Fact Sheet”):
Comanche women were in charge of the home. Besides cooking and cleaning, a Comanche woman built her family’s house and dragged the heavy posts with her whenever the tribe moved. Houses belonged to the women in the Comanche tribe. Comanche men were hunters and sometimes went to war to defend their families. Nearly all Comanche chiefs and warriors were men. Both genders took part in storytelling, artwork and music, and traditional medicine.
Worth a mention is that Prey is a fictional flick, so there is that.
“There’s never a moment that I’m not thinking about representation or just what that accomplishes,” she said. “Especially a movie like this, how it’s representing Indigenous people and what that might mean or how people might receive that or feel about being represented by it. To me, that was the most important part of making the movie.”
Prey is now available on Hulu
Official description:
The film is set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago following the story of a young woman, Naru, a fierce and highly skilled warrior. She has been raised in the shadow of some of the most legendary hunters who roam the Great Plains, so when danger threatens her camp, she sets out to protect her people. The prey she stalks, and ultimately confronts, turns out to be a highly evolved alien predator with a technically advanced arsenal, resulting in a vicious and terrifying showdown between the two adversaries.
The filmmakers were committed to creating a film that provides an accurate portrayal of the Comanche and brings a level of authenticity that rings true to its Indigenous peoples. Myers, an acclaimed filmmaker, Sundance Fellow and member of the Comanche nation herself, is known for her attention and dedication to films surrounding the Comanche and Blackfeet nations and her passion for honoring the legacies of the Native communities. As a result, the film features a cast comprised almost entirely of Native and First Nation’s talent, including Amber Midthunder (The Ice Road, Roswell, New Mexico), newcomer Dakota Beavers, Stormee Kipp (Sooyii), Michelle Thrush (The Journey Home), Julian Black Antelope (Tribal).
