Originally published on Daily-Reviews.com A review by Phil Hall "The Doe Boy" ** (out of 5 stars)
Direction and screenplay by Randy Redroad, produced by Anthony Vozza and Chris Eyre, cinematography by Laszlo Kadar, editing by Matthew Booth, music by Adam Dorn.
Starring James Duval, Kevin Anderson, Jeri Arredondo, Jade Hererra, Jim Metzler.
2002. Not rated. Running time: 87 minutes. Wellspring Video
"The Doe Boy" is a small, mundane drama about a hemophiliac half-Cherokee's coming of age in small-town Oklahoma in 1984. To its credit, the film has one of the more original stories imaginable--after all, the concept of a coming of age tale involving hemophiliac half-Cherokees in small town Oklahoma circa 1984 is not exactly well-worn.
But despite its unique story, "The Doe Boy" falls into a very predictable drama. The title character is Hunter, a heavily ironic name given that his sole attempt at big game hunting as a child resulted in the taboo shooting of a doe. Hunter (played by James Duval in a long black wig that recalls Cher from her "Half-Breed" days) has a fairly unhappy home thanks to his sad-sack beer-guzzling father (Kevin Anderson) and his overprotective nurse mother (Jeri Arredondo). Spurred by his parents' endless bickering and too-eager to find his place in the world, Hunter becomes curiously obsessed with being able to shoot a deer (although the distractions caused by the pretty Cherokee girl who moves in next door help him find another facet to his manhood in steamier ways). You can probably guess where the film is heading long before it ever arrives.
Contemporary Native American culture is only occasionally presented on-screen with any degree of cultural honesty, and "The Doe Boy" often seems as if its Cherokee story angle was tacked on to provide an exotic accessory to distract from an otherwise quotidian screenplay. Genuine understanding or appreciation of the Cherokee culture, either past or present, is absent from the film. In its place, Hunter is given some Native drinking buddies (which is more than a little offensive in view of the traditional plague of alcoholism among the Indian communities) and a wise old Cherokee grandfather who plays the flute and speaks with a broken English reminiscent of the slapstick Indians of "F Troop" than a genuine person living in the late 20th century.
Nor does it help to have James Duval in the title role. Despite his make-up, Duval quite frankly looks like a white guy trying to go Native and his listless performance suggests he's more than aware of his unfortunate presence in this production. There is no shortage of talented Indian actors (the versatile Adam Beach immediately comes to mind as being better suited for this role) and the producers' reluctance to cast an Indian in this role seems fairly strange in this multicultural day.
One amusing touch in "The Doe Boy" is an occasional cutaway to a deer's POV as the camera races wildly through a forest. It is a pity that the deer in the film have such tiny roles, as they genuinely seem more interesting than any of the biped performers who crowd them out for screen time.
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