Smoke Signals

Rating:
Summary: Movie - 5 Stars - DVD - 3 and a half stars
Review: Ah yes, it's a great day to be indigenous. Chris Eyre's Sundance busting, feature-film debut is the first film written, produced, and shot entirely by Native Americans, and also shares the distinction of being Native American (or Indian, as he prefers to be called) writer Sherman Alexie's first big-screen conversion of his brilliant prose. The second, Alexie-directed "The Business of Fancydancing," is currently playing the festival circuit, but "Smoke Signals" remains more of a family-oriented, character-driven film and one that will become both a cult and film-school classic.

The movie follows two young men, Victor and Thomas, as they set off on a road trip to pick up Victor's father's things. Victor's father was an abusive drunk, and left when Victor was young. Victor grew up to be a bit of an egotistical, surly brat (although not nearly as much as he was in the books), and only takes the nerdy, storytelling Thomas with him because otherwise could not afford the trip. Along the way, the two discover a little about themselves as Indians, and their place in American society as well as in their own families. Not exactly an action movie, but the brilliant acting, great scriptwriting (you just KNOW that most of this came from Alexie's real-life experiences) and simple heart of the film carry it through some potentially dull and cliché moments.

Miramax's DVD presentation simply doesn't do the film justice. There's a crisp, but fairly un-dynamic Dolby Digital 5.1 track, but the film is presented in letterboxed widescreen instead of anamorphic. The print is clean and clear, but it's gonna look crummy on high-end home theaters no matter how you shake it. There are no extras to speak of, either, which is a shame since of all the movies released with boatloads of extra features (Rush Hour 2, for example), a film like this, of interest to people and filmmakers alike, NEEDS those sorts of features.

I first saw this movie in Tulsa with an Indian friend from high school. We had the theatre to ourselves, and laughed and cried throughout. Smoke Signals is worth checking out, and if you enjoy it, use it as a gateway to educate yourself about Indians and Indian literature. This DVD, while minimal, looks to be the best version we're going to see for quite a while (Miramax hasn't even gotten around to re-releasing Pulp Fiction yet, or Swingers, let alone Smoke Signals). It's priced nice, too. If you have doubts, rent it, but do yourself a favor and see it one way or another.

Grades:
Movie: A-
DVD: C

Rating:
Summary: great road trip movie!
Review: One of the greatest underrated movies ever made!

Most of the emotional bite is taken from Sherman Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" leaving a great yet simple story about two Indians (Alexie himself dislikes the label "Native American") on the road from the upper Northwest to Arizona. The mission: collect the remains of the father of Victor Joseph-- played with great complexity by Adam Beach. Along for the ride is Thomas, the local reservation geek who brings along with him a vast array of stories from the past mixed with humor and pain played with resilence by Evan Adams, to the constant annoyance of Victor who has no time for stories or memories, only "truth" and the present tense.

This movie is a series of vignettes as the two travel off the reservation ("You're leavin' the Rez and going into a whole different country cousin." "But it's the United States." "Damn right it is, that's as foreign as it gets!") and into the wilderness of forgotten memories and rough landscape. Mixed in with the ponderings of what it means to be indeginous in America and who makes the best fry-bread is a great soundtrack which includes Dar Williams and Ulali.

This movie does not try to be more than it is: the story of two young men trying to find their place in the world with humor and anger. Director Chris Eyre keeps the story and the settings simple and the flashbacks flow fluidly from one iteration to the next.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone!

Rating:
Summary: Modern day literary and commercial success!
Review: As a college English professor, I am now showing this movie along with a study of the work "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" upon which "Smoke Signals" is based, as the final assignment in my American Lit II class. The movie is excellent, with numerous themes including the abandonment by fathers and its effect on children, the reality of the modern day reservation, stereotypical characterization, among others. This is an excellent movie and I highly recommend it, along with all the other writings of Sherman Alexie. He is young and already a prolific writer and I think we will be seeing more great work from him in the future and that his work will withstand the test of time. Look to see him included in college textbooks soon!

Rating:
Summary: dissenting opinion
Review: I just browsed through the basically unanimously positive reviews here and thought I'd offer a somewhat dissenting opinion. After all, most of the reviews on Amazon.com tend to be positive, since the people who visit any given listing are usually people who enjoyed the film, music, book, etc. I'm a fan of Sherman Alexie's writing, which I find fresh, unique, totally engaging and entertaing. I had eagerly anticipated the release of Smoke Signals when I had heard Alexie was writing the screenplay. I left the theater on opening day very dissapointed.

Part of the problem was of course that it was an adaptation of stories that I was already quite fond of. I didn't appreciate the attempt to make Thomas Builds the Fire so cutesy, when I had envisioned him as quirky and strange (in a good way). I can still hear the girls sitting behind me going "awwww" everytime he said anything. I like to think of Thomas as a guy most people wouldn't get, but the character in the movie seemed clearly designed to create the above response. It also lacked the freshness of Alexie's written voice. Had it not had Native American characters, it would be indistinguishable from hundreds of other ensemble type coming of age road films. My feeling was that this was essentially an attempt to make a commerical film created by Native Americans. I think that had Hollywood ever the guts to make a movie that didn't feature whites or blacks as the main characters and they decided to make a film with Native characters, something not too disimilar from Smoke Signals would have been the result.

That said, the film wasn't BAD. But it wasn't great or outstanding... unless you want to listen to every single one of the 86 reviews before mine :-) Anyway, that's my opinion, and I hope Alexie's next film project lives up to my expectations.

Rating:
Summary: Very humorous, enthralling video.
Review: "It's a good day to be indigenous" - from that line, I was hooked. I had to watch this film for my American Ethnic Lit course. Throughout the course, we are trying to answer the question "What does it mean to be _____". Smoke Signals is significant because, with a Native American director, cast, screenwriter, it does an authentic job of dispelling conventional perceptions about Native Americans (VICTOR: You have to look like you just finished killing a buffalo. THOMAS: But our tribe were fishermen.) Not having read the book this film was based on, I can't say anything about how well it adapts. Apparently, the plot draws on several of the short stories in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. From a literary perspective, I found the repeated motifs of fire, disappearing and invisibility, magic, and basketball very fascinating (particularly when Arnold and Victor Joseph played basketball against the Jesuits). This film is full of pleasant surprises that will make you laugh out loud, but it is very tender as well. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Movie About the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Review: Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) tells stories. Anyone who has ever had a father, or a father figure should listen. Smoke Signals is a movie about the stories we tell, about growing up sane in an insane world, and about learning to find the truth in the fiction we create for ourselves.

Based on short stories from Sherman Alexie's brilliant collection of wit, irony and tragic comedy, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, this film shows a sure hand and a light touch. Sherman Alexie knows how to write with irony, wit and subtle humor, and in this screenplay he captures perfectly, as he does in his book, the angst that is uniquely 20th century American Indian. As our two protagonists prepare leave the reservation to claim Victor's (Adam Beach) dead father's truck, a woman who drives backward around the reservation all day in her Chevy tells them to be careful. When they tell her they're only going to Arizona (they live on the Coeur d'Alene reservation in Washington State), she replies, "Unh . . . America, huh? That's about as foreign as it gets."

It is that bemused sense of being an outsider in your own land that drives this independent film and gives it a genuine feel, rather than the typical over-romanticized "Dances with Wolves" version of Indian-ness. Victor, in fact, takes vicious delight in both perpetuating and defying Indian stereotypes, as he leads a chorus of "John Wayne's Teeth" and councils Thomas, who wears thick glasses and his long hair in braids, to look more fierce, "like you just got back from killin' a buffalo or somthin."

It is Beach's performance which seems the most stilted and amateurish, unfortunately, as one of the major characters. But he almost makes it work for him by internalizing Victor's anger and creating another mask, however thin. Another problem is the romance that almost develops between Victor and his dead father's neighbor (Irene Bedard). Perhaps it was a choice between staying with the major theme of the movie and "going Hollywood" on both the casting and the plot in this case. There is real heat when the two are on screen, but it goes nowhere.

These are two very minor irritations with an otherwise delightful movie. The universality of this coming of age story, combined with its unique characters and point of view, make this a video you're going to want to see again and again. Buy it.

Rating:
Summary: great road trip movie!
Review: One of the greatest underrated movies ever made!

Most of the emotional bite is taken from Sherman Alexie's "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" leaving a great yet simple story about two Indians (Alexie himself dislikes the label "Native American") on the road from the upper Northwest to Arizona. The mission: collect the remains of the father of Victor Joseph-- played with great complexity by Adam Beach. Along for the ride is Thomas, the local reservation geek who brings along with him a vast array of stories from the past mixed with humor and pain played with resilence by Evan Adams, to the constant annoyance of Victor who has no time for stories or memories, only "truth" and the present tense.

This movie is a series of vignettes as the two travel off the reservation ("You're leavin' the Rez and going into a whole different country cousin." "But it's the United States." "Damn right it is, that's as foreign as it gets!") and into the wilderness of forgotten memories and rough landscape. Mixed in with the ponderings of what it means to be indeginous in America and who makes the best fry-bread is a great soundtrack which includes Dar Williams and Ulali.

This movie does not try to be more than it is: the story of two young men trying to find their place in the world with humor and anger. Director Chris Eyre keeps the story and the settings simple and the flashbacks flow fluidly from one iteration to the next.

I would highly recommend this movie to anyone!

Rating:
Summary: Modern day literary and commercial success!
Review: As a college English professor, I am now showing this movie along with a study of the work "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven" upon which "Smoke Signals" is based, as the final assignment in my American Lit II class. The movie is excellent, with numerous themes including the abandonment by fathers and its effect on children, the reality of the modern day reservation, stereotypical characterization, among others. This is an excellent movie and I highly recommend it, along with all the other writings of Sherman Alexie. He is young and already a prolific writer and I think we will be seeing more great work from him in the future and that his work will withstand the test of time. Look to see him included in college textbooks soon!

Rating:
Summary: "It's rough all over, Pony Boy"
Review: Please excuse my Outsider's approximate quotation, but it seems to apply to this movie. At first you are dropped into a new landscape of the modern Native American reservation. The locale seems charming with it's quirky customs - people who drive backwards, a radio station based out of an RV. However, as the story unfolds, you realize that themes emerge that we can all relate to - pain, abandonment, disappointment, anger, loneliness. Well-done, especially if you appreciate slow-paced, dialog-driven films.

Rating:
Summary: Why I use this film with troubled adolescents
Review: I work as a psychotherapist with adolescents and young adults. I use "Smoke Signals" with them by assigning them to rent and view the movie, which is always enjoyable because it's witty, humorous, wise, and significant. The movie poses two essential questions: 1) If someone else has mistreated, hurt, abandoned, or disrespected you, is it possible to forgive them if they've NEVER asked forgiveness, never done anything to "put it right," never returned in atonement to undo the damage, and never begtun to deserve it? And 2) if it *is* possible--and it may not be--SHOULD you? Because if you do, doesn't that just make you a willing victim by letting them "get away" with what they did, and pretending the relationship is okay again?

Victor lives in the tension of this dilemma. As a 12-year-old youth, he witnessed the effects of alcohol on his family. His father vascillated between being loving and instantly "turning" to become hostile, violent, and humiliating to the young boy. Victor finds himself becoming more deeply embarrassed by his family's domestic abuse and alcohol use, even defiantly scolding his own father that his favorite Indian is "Nobody...nobody...nobody!"

Victor's mother awakens the next morning to see Victor angrily smashing his father's beer bottles on the back of his father's picup truck (the two things he believes his father loves more than him), and the epiphany stuns the mother, who insists on an immediate end to family drunkenness. Proving Victor's fears true, the father--forced to choose between alcohol and family--flees the family, and never returns. It is within that unchanged arrangement that his father dies, 8 years later, having never returned home.

Victor and his oddball companion Thomas make a side-splittingly funny journey south from Idaho to Phoenix together to make arrangements for the father's possessions, confronted by the racism, peculiarities, and hostilities of the non-Indian "outside" world. Thomas, having never seen the dark side of Victor's father, irritates Victor with incessant stories and tales about the dad's greatness.

Victor, having been so deeply wounded and sold-out by his father's abandonment, has become tough, fierce, aggressive...and lonely. "You can't trust anyone!" he scolds. "People will walk all over you!" His mistrust poisons his friendships, family, and feelings about his father. He's become just another tough guy, hardened by family violence and substance use.

In Phoenix, Victor finds an essential artifact of his father's life: a worn-out photo with "HOME" written sloppily on it. At once, Victor begins to realize that his father's fatal flaw was COWARDICE: the father could confess his sins to new companions a thousand miles from home, but could never return home and undo the damage he'd caused. And so his son has suffered for 8 years. Victor begins to realize that he himself is allowing his actions to damage others, and that it is cowardice, not manly independence, that controls his decision to remain distant and fierce.

Victor slowly begins to repent of his own abusive toughness, cutting his hair in symbolic repentance (traditional hair-cutting is done either in grief, or in repentence for shameful behavior). The process of discovery continues when Thomas angrily confronts Victor about Victor's own behavior: remaining cold and distant from his own mother, acting forceful and ruthless to others, etc.

Victor ends the film by freeing himself of his 8-year hostility toward his unforgiven father, and in that final act of forgiveness we find that the greatest benefit is for VICTOR, who becomes kinder, funnier, gentler, and more confident in his friendships. The significance of forgiveness, he learns, isn't to let someone else off the hook, but to let one's own self off the hook of the pain caused by another, rather than carrying that pain inside for years.

In the final scene, this release of aged anger is represented by the cathartic release of his father's ashes into a river, meaningfully shown in film montage as expanding in power from streams into torrents, much like the energy of either a person enraged or a person set free.

It is at the end of the film that we really begin to understand Thomas' original cryptic remark at the beginning, "Some children aren't really children at all. They're just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch. And some children are just pillars of ash, and they fall apart as soon as you touch them."

Not one single person yet who's watched this film at my urging has disliked it.