SMOKE SIGNALS

Director: Chris Eyre

Year of production: 1998

Actors: Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Tantoo Cardinal, Irene Bedard, Gary Farmer

Preceding “Skins” by six years, “Smoke Signals” is directed by Chris Eyre as well, but the two movies are very different. The first feature of “Smoke signals” is the 70s atmosphere that the spectator can feel watching it, through colors and all the typical elements of that time (yellow sunglasses Ozzy Osbourne style as well): an example, the movie opens with the speaker of a reservation radio who address the listeners with “It's a good day to be indigenous!!”.

That sounds very '70 !!

In addiction this movie is less gloomy than Skins, even if the main topic is still not a lighthearted one; it has been described in many cine-reviews as being in part drama and in part comedy. The two main characters are Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds The Fire (Evan Adams), two Native American guys from the Coeur d'Alene Indian reservation (Idaho); the two are friends and they has grown up together, but they have two opposite personalities. Victor is a basket player with a grumpy temper, Thomas is an eccentric storyteller who always sees life in a positive way.

Something they have in common is their childhood relationship with the Victor's father, Arnold: Thomas considers Arnold like an hero because he saved him from a fire as a child, Victor has an opposite perception of his father, very negative, because he has endured his dad's alcoholism, domestic violence and child abandonment.

The difference between the two movies is also in the way the director decide to describe violence: like Moogie, Victor's father, Arnold, is also an alcoholic, but the spectator doesn't see in Arnold the brutal transformation caused by the alcohol like in Moogie. Even if Arnold is violent with Arlene, his wife and mother of his son, the violence against a woman showed in “Smoke signal” doesn't reach the extremes of “Skins”: Arlene (the beautiful Tantoo Cardinal) is a woman with a strong and wise personality and she accepts the husband's solution for their problems (the escape) without any bitterness. She is also not passive against the husband's violence. He is Victor, only a child, the real victim of this bad situation and maybe he is the the most gloomy character of the movie. He can't accept the father's behavior and he can't forget his suffering during his life with the passing of time.

When Arnold dies in Arizona, Victor begins a journey to Phoenix in company of Thomas to bring the ashes of his father home. In Phoenix he meets Suzy Song (the pretty Irene Bedard), an Indian girl who has become friend with Arnold, who reveal to him a big truth about his father.

This journey gives the possibility to young boy Victor to clean his life from his sadness, to forgive definitively his dad, a great opportunity to understand his life. Near the end, the scene when Thomas tells to his granny that Victor has finally forgiven his father can help the spectator understand that Thomas is not a naive boy, but he knows and loves his friend better than any other.

“The film is unique as an all Native American production: producers, director, screenwriters (Alexie), actors and technicians” (From Wikipedia).

Like “Skins”, this movie is a big opportunity for those that enjoy a real work of art from the Native American world.

The only one scene where the spectator can notice the  presence of white man is when Victor and Thomas, inside the bus for Phoenix, meet some of them. In a first moment the two guys start a conversation with an american girl. After that they have an argument with two arrogant cowboys who have occupied their places on the bus:

“Cowboys always win” “Cowboys don't always win” (Thomas says this to Victor, who replies “Shut up”).

The outcome is they singing together the song “John Wayne teeth are in plastic”, with all the people in the bus watching them, including the bus driver. This scene has impressed me a lot, as I can understand what kind of sensation can feel a member of a small community going outside of his microcosm, in a complicated world such as the USA.

Another important person for this movie is the screenwriter, Alexie Sherman. This movie is based on the short story “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona” from his book “The Lone Ranger and Tonto fistfight in heaven”. Sherman Alexie is a Native American poet, writer and film-maker with ancestry in several Indian tribes.