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Reviews
Smoke Signals (1998)
Smoke Signals Review
Moving, inspiring, and authentic are all words used to describe Sheman Alexie's 1998 critically acclaimed Smoke Signals, starring Adam Beach, Evan Adams and Gary Farmer. It was one of the first films to cast actual Native Americans to play the Native American roles. The story will make you smile, laugh and possibly cry, but overall it is a heartwarming story of two young men trying to find their way as Native American's in modern America. The setting is the Coeur d'Alene Reservation and it's the 4th of July. Arnold Joseph saves two infant boys from a fire that breaks out. Unfortunately, the parents of Thomas Builds-the- Fire, whom he saved, do not survive. Arnold is never the same after that tragic day. Victor Joseph becomes strong and stoic when his father leaves him and his mother when he is a child. When he gets the news that his father has past away he continues to be angry with him. It's not until he and Thomas go on the journey to recover the remains does Victor realize his father leaving him wasn't because of him, but because of the drunken disaster he had become and the mess he had created. Throughout the film many historical and traditional Native American facts are brought to life. On the reservation, people do not use much money, but often barter or trade for goods with stories and favors. Also, cars do not always get fixed and because laws on the Reservation differ from state laws, one could even drive their vehicle backwards around town if the transmission went out. As for the stories, Thomas does an over the top rendition of someone using the oral tradition of story telling by telling them whenever he gets the chance and going on and on and on. At the end of the film when he and Victor have returned from their journey, Grandma Builds-the-Fire asks Thomas to tell her how it's going to end. He then goes into my favorite and the most touching part of the movie. The quote is as follows. "How do we forgive our fathers? Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying, our mothers? Or divorcing, or not divorcing, our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing, or leaning? For shutting doors or speaking through walls? For never speaking, or never being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them or not saying it. If we forgive our fathers, what is left?"