Film review by Kevin Patterson
SMOKE SIGNALS Rating: *** (out of four) Director: Chris Eyre Producers: Larry Estes, Scott M. Rosenfelt Screenplay: Sherman Alexie Starring Cast: Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Gary Farmer, Tantoo Cardinal, Irene Bedard
The buzz surrounding SMOKE SIGNALS has largely focused on the fact that it is the first film to have been written, produced, directed, and acted entirely by Native Americans. While it is notable for its avoidance of pop-culture stereotypes of all Native Americans as either shamans or drunkards, the roots of its success are the same as those of most successful films: realistic, three-dimensional characters who have an interesting story.
Victor Joseph (Adam Beach), the lead character, is a young man living on a reservation in Idaho whose alcoholic father Arnold (Gary Farmer) abandoned his family years ago. It's a small, isolated community, which means that he sometimes sees more than he would like of Thomas Builds-The-Fire (Evan Adams), whom Arnold rescued from a fire when he was only an infant. Thomas is the kind of guy who's settled into a routine, which in his case is his enthusiasm for just about everything and his tendency to tell odd little stories all the time, and is completely oblivious to the fact that he can get on people's nerves once in a while. Victor's father, who's been in Arizona since he left his family, has now died, and Victor doesn't have enough money to go collect his ashes by himself. Along comes Thomas, who agrees to supply the rest of the cash if he can go along for the ride.
>From there, SMOKE SIGNALS follows the basic formula for a buddy/road movie, in which the characters discover certain things about themselves and about each other along the way. Victor discovers that his father wasn't just a simple drunk who ran out on the family and that he has harbored a lot more anger and bitterness over his family's breakup than he would like to admit. Thomas, who sometimes unintentionally mimics the stereotype of Native Americans as mystics and who "has seen DANCES WITH WOLVES a hundred times" according to Victor, turns out to be a little wiser than one might initially think.
While there are some traces of resentment over their social marginalization, the Native Americans in SMOKE SIGNALS seem just as likely to joke about their situation as they are to complain about it. "The only thing worse than Indians on TV is Indians watching Indians on TV," Thomas comments when he, Victor, and Arnold's friend Suzie (Irene Bedard) find themselves watching a cowboys-and-Indians movie. Some of the funniest moments belong to a radio broadcaster on the reservation who makes daily traffic and weather reports such as, "A car went by about ten minutes ago, and there's a cloud up in the sky that looks kind of like a horse." The humorous touches serve to undermine the stereotypes through the characters' mockery of them.
The acting in SMOKE SIGNALS and the evocation of the rural West by director Chris Eyre are probably a little more polished than Sherman Alexie's screenplay, which includes a few long, drawn-out scenes of only minimal importance and comes dangerously close to making a caricature of Thomas as storyteller wannabe. Still, the mix of character study and humor is engaging enough to keep Victor's and Thomas's road trip moving past any bumps along the way.
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