Smoke Signals (1998)

Director:

Chris Eyre

Writers:

Sherman Alexie (book)
Sherman Alexie (screenplay)

Release Date:

26 June 1998 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

A new film from the heart of Native America.

Plot:

Young Indian man Thomas is a nerd in his reservation, wearing oversize glasses and telling everyone stories no-one wants to hear...

Plot Keywords:

Road | Fire | Trailer | Native American Reservation | Drunkenness

Awards:

9 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Adam Beach	...	Victor Joseph
Evan Adams	...	Thomas Builds-the-Fire
Irene Bedard	...	Suzy Song
Gary Farmer	...	Arnold Joseph
Tantoo Cardinal	...	Arlene Joseph
Cody Lightning	...	Young Victor Joseph
Simon Baker	...	Young Thomas Builds-the-Fire
Monique Mojica	...	Grandma Builds-the-Fire
John Trudell	...	Randy Peone
Chief Leonard George	...	Lester Fallsapart (as Leonard George)
Michael Greyeyes	...	Junior Polatkin
Darwin Haine	...	Boo
Michelle St. John	...	Velma
Elaine Miles	...	Lucy
Cynthia Geary	...	Cathy the Gymnast

Also Known As:

Le secret des cendres (Canada: French title)
This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some intense images.

Runtime:

89 min

Country:

Canada | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

USA:PG-13 (certificate #35626) | USA:TV-14 (TV rating) | Iceland:12 | Argentina:13 | Chile:14 | France:U | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation, Plummer, Idaho, USA

Company:

ShadowCatcher Entertainment

Trivia:

The first movie to be written, directed, and co-produced by a Native American.

Goofs:

Continuity: When 12-year-old Victor beats Thomas up right after his dad leaves, he is wearing a white and red shirt under his button-up shirt. After he begins running, the undershirt changes to a completely red muscle-tee.

Quotes:

Thomas Builds-the-Fire: How do we forgive our fathers? Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all...

Movie Connections:

Featured in Wanderlust (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Reservation Blues

Amazingly misunderstood

I have read some of Sherman Alexie's work, although admittedly not "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." I don't want to ruin a movie that I enjoyed so thoroughly by loving the book more. In any case, I think that this film is largely misunderstood. Non-Indian people tend to look at this film as a "coming of age" story about finding Victor finding not only his father, but himself as well. Yes, that's there, but there is so much more. For example: the very real and very sad quality of life on the rez. The ones who are fortunate enough to have a car don't care if it drives in reverse only. The kids watch their parents drinking, and often grow up to drink with them. Alcoholism is a very real disease that affects everyone associated with an alcoholic...and it runs rampant throughout many reservations. Imagine knowing that once you had so much, and now are only allotted a certain patch of a certain number of acres; imagine knowing that more than half of your history was oral tradition and people made you stop speaking your native language. Imagine the elders watching the children grow up to try to be white and fail, and imagine them watching their history slip away with every word or nuance forgotten. Imagine the desperation of a people as a whole and individually to have so much and really have nothing at all. That, I believe, is the underlying theme in Smoke Signals. The title alone is a cryptic message from Alexie: smoke signals were used to communicate across open plains, plains now destroyed and whithered as though a fire raged across them, which it did in the form of the white man. Victor's father died in a fire, perhaps sending his spirit up in the form of a smoke signal to his gods. And Thomas' narration at the beginning is about children born of fire and ash. Watch this movie again and again, and see how so many suffer...