chubbydave There are a lot of good things about this movie. First, it starts off as a buddy movie. You know how two guys who are totally different are thrown together through circumstances beyond their control, and at first they clash but eventually learn to appreciate their differences and become good friends. The buddy effect of this movie is very believable. Both guys are likable with totally different personalities and played by good actors.Another factors is the "indian-ness". Those of us who aren't Indians have never been exposed to the jokes. In one scene, they walk into a house, and a old cowboy and Indian movie is showing on TV. One guy says, "The only thing more pathetic than Indians on TV is Indians watching Indians on TV." There's a whole genre of jokes that people like me haven't been exposed to.Also a high point is the quality of the actors. One is the breathtakingly beautiful Irene Bedard. She is just plain beautiful, and she plays a very loving, caring, warm young woman, someone you can admire. Another is Evan Adams who plays Thomas, a super-dork Indian who watched "Dances With Wolves" a hundred times so he could master the old Indian medicineman accent much to the annoyance of his friend. His parents died when he was an infant, but his grandmother just loves him so much. That was touching. And Thomas is a story-teller, and most of stories are just weird. I'd love to have a guy like that at a party.But the overall theme of the movie is how a young man deals with a neglecting father. The father leaves when he's a kid. It hurt him, and the movie shows a little of how he trying to overcome.

hmspele-1 This movie was really a surprise. Great story and excellent acting. I was expecting a so-so movie, but still wanted to see it after reading a few reviews. Well, I'm sure glad I did see it. I enjoyed this film very much. Adam Beach, Evan Adams and Irene Bedard were wonderful in this film. The characters were well developed and Sherman Alexie wrote the screenplay in such a way that you were involved in these people's lives. Thomas' character is presented as a nerd at the beginning of the movie, but you begin to understand his emotions and wisdom as the movie rolls on. Victor's character starts out as seeming arrogant and a bully, but evolves into someone you would want to be acquainted with. This movie was a pleasure to see.

middleburg The journey of Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor Joseph is told through a combination of social commentary, dreamlike tales and images, and a sensitivity for human emotion that sometimes takes your breath away. From the earliest tale of Thomas"flying through the air" during the harrowing and heartbreaking aftermath of July 4th celebrations, straight through to the stunning denouement with the powerful poem of "Forgiving our Fathers" accompanied by the haunting music of Ulila and the drummers and chanters which lifts us up to the Heavens, this film is a small masterpiece. It is very much a depiction of contemporary Native American culture--but it is told with such a keen understanding of universal human emotion, that everyone can relate to it. Love, regret, pain, forgiveness--all of these great enduring issues abound in the film. At what point do our lives turn out a certain way do to society, luck or misfortune, inner strength or lack of it--that final poem sums up the film brilliantly. The characters are so richly drawn--even those who appear ever so briefly in the film--that a rich tapestry is created as their lives and stories are woven together. Ultimately director Chris Eyre's and author Sherman Alexei's film celebrates forgiveness, understanding, acceptance, human compassion and perseverance. This is not to say that the film is somber or purely philosophical. My Heavens, no! There are a wealth of intriguing events, characters--moments of surprising humor, moments of very real sadness, the past woven seamlessly with the present, the reality woven seamlessly with Thomas' tales of dreams and imagination. The photography is glorious, the American West a place of great beauty--sometimes a desolate beauty, but beauty never-the-less. The music score is powerful and riveting. And most importantly we care about the characters--we want them to be happy, their lives to be fulfilled...we laugh with them, knowingly nod our heads in understanding with them, and in many instances, our hearts break right along with theirs. For anyone who has lost their parents--this movie can be unbelievably sad, but it can also be unbelievably cathartic and comforting. This is one for the ages!

jweigel-1 Moving, inspiring, and authentic are all words used to describe Sheman Alexie's 1998 critically acclaimed Smoke Signals, starring Adam Beach, Evan Adams and Gary Farmer. It was one of the first films to cast actual Native Americans to play the Native American roles. The story will make you smile, laugh and possibly cry, but overall it is a heartwarming story of two young men trying to find their way as Native American's in modern America. The setting is the Coeur d'Alene Reservation and it's the 4th of July. Arnold Joseph saves two infant boys from a fire that breaks out. Unfortunately, the parents of Thomas Builds-the- Fire, whom he saved, do not survive. Arnold is never the same after that tragic day. Victor Joseph becomes strong and stoic when his father leaves him and his mother when he is a child. When he gets the news that his father has past away he continues to be angry with him. It's not until he and Thomas go on the journey to recover the remains does Victor realize his father leaving him wasn't because of him, but because of the drunken disaster he had become and the mess he had created. Throughout the film many historical and traditional Native American facts are brought to life. On the reservation, people do not use much money, but often barter or trade for goods with stories and favors. Also, cars do not always get fixed and because laws on the Reservation differ from state laws, one could even drive their vehicle backwards around town if the transmission went out. As for the stories, Thomas does an over the top rendition of someone using the oral tradition of story telling by telling them whenever he gets the chance and going on and on and on. At the end of the film when he and Victor have returned from their journey, Grandma Builds-the-Fire asks Thomas to tell her how it's going to end. He then goes into my favorite and the most touching part of the movie. The quote is as follows. "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? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying, our mothers? Or divorcing, or not divorcing, our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing, or leaning? For shutting doors or speaking through walls? For never speaking, or never being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths, saying it to them or not saying it. If we forgive our fathers, what is left?"