Review of Smoke Signals

From all the 1990s movies focused on the indigenous peoples of North America; this one directed by Chris Eyre is unique as it was independently made with an all-Native American production. Based on screenwriter Sherman Alexie's 1993 short story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" from his book 'The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven'. The film follows two men from an Indian Reservation, Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) on their cross-country journey to discovered the truth about their recently demise elder. Without spoiling the movie too much, there was indeed a number of additional scenes and plot points that was put to the film that don't appear in the original story. Many of which were adapted from other stories in the collection by the author. While this isn't really much of a problem as most of those plot threads does work best for the movie including the character of Suzy Song (Irene Bedard) who doesn't appear anywhere in the book. It does put a wedge between those 25% ers wanting the film to capture the same magic of the original by showing the souls living in the reservation a lot more; from those majority urban areas audience members seeking to see a road trip movie where the characters face cultural injustices and contemporary issues within the United States. Nevertheless, most are in agreement that the film drop the ball in not fueling the negative stereotypical of alcoholism that has been long been applied to all American Indians even if it's somewhat true that Native Americans are at greater risk for alcohol related domestic violence and much more susceptible to its related diseases and deaths compared with other U.S. ethnic groups. Regardless of ethnicity, alcoholism is transcendent with most people. Along with that, seeing individuals struggle with learning how to cope with past mistakes is also universal. Honestly, you really don't need a translator integrate with Native American lore to understand that cutting one's hair is a sign of mourning. Furthermore, the fire and ash themes do represent destruction and rebirth within most human societies. Nonetheless some of the film's other emotional visuals didn't quite conversed as clearly as the filmmakers has planned. Some examples are the scenes where Victor's father Arnold (Gary Farmer) rescues a baby from a burning house. The way the actor dives to save an obvious wrapped doll from falling is hilarious to watch. The same can be said with the dramatic conclusion of Victor squatting and crying in pain on a bridge. It felt like somebody dealing with a bad case of diarrhea. The performances are very mixed bag. I never really got the full feeling that any of the characters truly changed for the better over time. Thomas still seemed like a naive happy go lucky medicine man tool and Victor the same bitter jerk with a heart of gold by the end. Instead of mostly great tear jerking moments, some of those events with them came across as unintentional laugh out loud gags. Although the movie does provide deliberate humor on its own. The jokes are so narrow niches that not everybody would get the highbrow punchline. For example, there is a scene where Arnold ask his son who is his favorite Indian; in which the young man reply with the answer of 'Nobody'. Only those very few audience members with knowledge of Gary Farmer's previous works would have got that joke. How's about the bizarre moment where Thomas complain about Indians watching old westerns? Theatrical audiences wouldn't have the time to notice that the brief footages on the character's television screen are scenes from a 1955 film that happen to share the same title as this movie. Another odd moment is where the two ladies drive their car backwards. Not everybody is going to know that it's a nod to Heyokha folklore. That's somewhat of a problem of the humor of this movie. The meta jokes goes over the head for general audiences. People just didn't get it. Even the choice of music from B.C Smith for the film had more to it. The song "All My Relations" performed by Ulali at the end of the movie has the same beat as the Irish quickstep dance "Garryowen." That's song is perhaps best known as the last tune played before General George Armstrong Custer and his entire regiment were killed at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. As for the runtime. The movie has pretty good pacing; despite the slow burn flashbacks in the beginning and out of nowhere third act somewhat forced crash subplot. It's still reasonable. As for the cinematography from Brian Capener. It was mostly alright, even if there isn't much to look at. Still I was really hoping rather than shots of mostly the cramp bus for a more epic trippy wide screen viewing of the rural landscapes of Arizona and Idaho. Something that you don't need to smoke a peace pipe to a huge high from. Still in the end, the movie was good enough to be selected for preservation in the National Film Registry for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant in 2018. I can somewhat agree. I love viewing the world through the modern-day Native American's perspective. It was very interesting. Overall: Sometimes it's a good day to die and sometimes it's a good day to have breakfast. In the end, grab some frybread and go see this movie. It's certainly worth a watch. Highly recommended.