Introduction
- Title: Smoke Signals
- Director: Chris Eyre
- Year of Release: 1998
- Director of Photography/Cinematographer: Brian Capener
- Editor: Brian Berdan
- Cast: Adam Beach – Victor Joseph, Evan Adams – Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Irene Bedard – Suzy Song, Gary Farmer Arnold Joseph.
“Though this is very much the first feature…, ”Smoke Signals” shows colorful style and a wisdom beyond precocity about its setting and its people” – the film got the following remarks from the New York Times journalist Janet Maslin (Maslin). There is no doubt that the film is highly emotional, explores not only ethnic problems and discrepancies the two young men face in their pursuit of knowledge but the issues of identity, self-understanding, and coordination of the truth of life with everything they knew before.
Chris Eyre showed himself as a skillful creator of the genuinely Native American story seen with the eyes of two young guys traveling in the search of the remains of their father, who face the country they have never seen before but which they, nevertheless, want to get familiar with. In some points, the film shows their humoristic naivety, but in general, the film is highly depictive both from the point of view of purely individualistic traits and relations and the nationwide scope of the Native American perception. The director was trying to break the long-existing stereotypes about violent Native Americans incarcerated in their reservations and living according to their sacred, mysterious canons that do not fit in the commonly accepted social life – he depicted the two ordinary young men in the turning point of their life.
The relationships between characters
Their interrelations are very expressive from the point of view of their origin, with Victor being the native son of his father, and Thomas is an ‘adopted’ child, the saved boy whom Victor’s father rescued in his childhood. They both love their father, but only Thomas knows his real inner self: it was Thomas who lived under one roof with his father for his whole life and suffered violence and humiliation, alcoholism, and the unexpectedness of his father (Smoke Signals). However, both guys as people deeply attached to their roots love their father dearly, which initiates their journey from the reservation to Phoenix, to get their father back home. The story of their trip is becoming much more complex and heterogeneous as the differences between Victor and Thomas are revealed in the course of the narrative:
The boys have been rivals and opposites ever since. Victor is the bigger and sterner of the two, with Thomas as his screwball sidekick. It is Victor, for instance, who accuses Thomas of having gotten his ideas of Indian behavior from too many viewings of ”Dances With Wolves” and advises him to quit grinning, start scowling and toughen up (Maslin).
Unexpected moment
The end of the film brings about an unexpected turning point for both Arnold’s sons, especially for Thomas – the boy who loved Arnold all his life for being saved from the fire finds out that Arnold was the initial cause of the fire that brought death for his parents. The realization of the truth makes both characters look at their life and their relations in another way, making them closer than ever before. All their life was a rivalry full of jealousy towards one another – the tough, harsh Victor did not accept Thomas as a part of his life and his family. The newly discovered facts make them both look at their lives from another angle and reconsider everything that happened to them, making them close as never before.
Looking at the plot more thoroughly, it becomes clear that the film combines many ethic elements that signify the Native American culture and show the patterns of Native American ethnicity very explicitly and at times even unexpectedly for a regular American or Canadian viewer. The issues of self-identification in a narrow, family sense and in a broader sense of belonging to a certain culture collide in the course of the narrative, revealing the conflicts belaying the whole narrative.
Smoke Signals is alight with oddball nuances and wry observations: the reservation’s radio station, KREZ, uses a broken-down van at the deserted crossroads to gauge the (nonexistent) traffic conditions, and Victor’s mother Arlene (Cardinal) is a master in the fine art of flatbread-making. Subtle, lyrically haunting touches like these evoke a palpable sense of loss and the sub-poverty level of Native American life, but also unite the tribe – broken by alcohol and abuse though they may be – in long-held beliefs and rituals (Savlov).
The quality of filming
The technical part of the film is performed with stunning proficiency – the shots are skillfully made producing the deep emotional effect and including many implications that are not voiced in dialogues but are meant by the silent scenes and actions of the heroes. Mise en scene represents the USA in the 1990s with the stereotypical perception of Native Americans by the society: the attitude to them by people they meet and interact with. The costumes of the main characters also speak for themselves – they are dressed up as real Indians, in plain and comfortable clothes, and are remarkable in the common society. Political and social conflict is fully revealed by the distorted perception of the guys by other people who were raised on pervert stereotypes and ignorance.
Film’s title symbolism
The title of the film is speaking for itself in several ways – “Smoke Signals” are highly symbolic in the respect of the meaning of the concept for both heroes. The first meaning that may be attached to the title is the shadow of the past represented by the fire in which parents of Thomas died and made him a part of the family of Arnold and Victor. On the other hand, these both guys symbolize smoke signals that they send to the rest of the community, eager to become a part of it but being rejected.
The plot of the film
The topic that is traced in the film, which is the Native American ethnicity, stereotyping, and perception of Native Americans may be followed in some other films of the genre that are worth mentioning in the present work as well. For example, such films as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Little Big Man” also represent the way a stereotypical depiction of Native American people may be viewed from both sides of the barricade – from the side of the regular community and the side of the indigenous groups of the society as well.
The main juxtaposition of the plot is the peculiarity of world perception by both characters – Victor and Thomas. They were living in one reservation, Thomas being an orphan but still managing to retain a romanticized and mild perception of the contemporary reality, not seeing the cruelty and complexity of life Victor came across experiencing the violence of his father, Arnold.
Conclusion
The characters are harshly juxtaposed with one another, unwillingly united by one aim in one trip, evolving into friends and simply understanding people in the course of the film. Thomas teaches Victor to face the horrors of the past, put up with them and let them not prevent him from leading a full life in the present and future. From his side, Victor helps Thomas put up with the newly discovered truth and adjust to real life in a world full of incongruence, suffering, and trouble. They become a natural mix of different people helping each other evolve into something better, consequently creating a much stronger family unit than they could have ever supposed.
Works Cited
Little Big Man. Cinema Center Films, 1970.
Maslin, Janet. “Smoke Signals (1998). FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW; Miles to Go, and Worlds Apart”. New York Times. Web.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. United Artists Warner Home Video, 1975.
Savlov, Mark. “Smoke Signals”. The Austin Chronicle, 1998. Web.
Smoke Signals. Miramax Films, 1998.