POWWOW HIGHWAY (Warner Bros.) Directed by Jonathan Wacks The acclaim heaped on the recent Native American drama "Smoke Signals" has prompted a re-discovery of "Powwow Highway," director Jonathan Wacks' similarly themed 1989 comedy-drama about a Northern Cheyenne odd couple who leave their reservation and face myriad troubles in the white man's world. Briefly -- and rather unceremoniously -- released by Warner Bros. before being shuttled to video, "Powwow" has built up both a cult following and a substantial critical reputation. It will play the Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts this month. Next to "Smoke Signals" "Powwow" looks almost slick, with A Martinez (of TV's "Santa Barbara" and "L.A. Law") as the disgruntled Buddy Redbow, who's always on guard against outsiders trying to offer Indians a helping hand. Faced with what sounds like a potentially lucrative land deal proposed by some white businessmen, Redbow resists the offer and insists it will wind up the way all transactions between Indians and whites do: "You get what you want and we get the shaft," he snarls. He's intensely bitter about his surroundings -- "This here ain't the American dream we're living," he says of the reservation. "This here's the Third World" -- but he's also willing to fight to hold on to what little he has. His best friend Philbert (Gary Farmer) is also his complete opposite, a gentle giant who chooses to tap into Indian spirituality and tradition, even though almost everyone else in his neighborhood ridicules him. When Redbow's sister Bonnie (Joannelle Nadine Romero) and her kids are hauled into jail on a trumped-up drug charge, Redbow and Philbert must make the trek from Montana to New Mexico in a rickety 1964 Buick to bail her out. The journey is peppered with comic run-ins with a tactless car-stereo salesman, vaguely ethereal experiences which bewilder Redbow and confirm Philbert's beliefs and a few mild clashes between the buddies over their very different lifestyles. Redbow, for instance, shames Philbert for his diet of "sugar, grease and beer" while smoking a joint. Martinez gives a solid, thoroughly credible performance, but it's Farmer who makes the movie truly special; look at his half-amused/half-offended reaction to a TV commercial featuring a car dealer wearing a feathered headdress and whooping it up. He makes Philbert a truly memorable character. Director Wacks has only made two films since "Powwow"; the less-than-dazzling Ethan Hawke vehicle "Mystery Date" and a straight-to-cable comedy called "Ed and His Dead Mother." Neither has a fraction of the wit or insight of this uneven but engaging slice-of-life. Unjustly neglected by audiences and by its distributor the first time around, "Powwow" certainly deserves a second chance. James Sanford
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