©
Miramax.All Rights Reserved.
©
Miramax.All Rights Reserved. |
What is truth? What is myth? Some
distort the truth to create wonder. Others distort the truth to prove the worst in life
and in people.
To one degree or another, everyone recounts past events with some amount of distortion.
Sometimes people tell out and out lies. More often, the distortion reflects one’s
attitudes and assumptions about the world. Often it is impossible for a person to see how
their recollections are influenced by preconceived notions and that their memories have
gone through a process of change over time. Sometimes the change is minor. In other
instances the change results in a picture that is virtually unrecognizable from what
originally occurred.
Victor and Thomas are Native Americans, cousins who have known each other all their lives,
have shared many of the same experiences and yet have different recollections of people
and events in their world. They live on the Cour d’Alene "Rez" in Idaho.
Victor and Thomas reflect a hybrid of traditional Native American and contemporary white
customs, interests, and life styles.
We see that the Indian reservation is a place of poverty where almost everything seems to
be broken. One might think that the inhabitants must be down trodden and burdened by this
state but we soon realize that there is incredible life, spirit, and energy. This is no
Utopia. Far from it. There is a curse that comes in a bottle or a six pack.
Victor is a handsome, intelligent young man who is angry and bitter. There is a sharpness
in his manner. We realize, through flashbacks, that he has emotionally charged memories of
his father, an alcoholic who could change from loving and playful to brutal and mean over
the slightest thing. One does not have to be a psychologist to understand how Victor grew
to be a weary and suspicious young man. Some of the best events in his life turned ugly
when his father became drunk.
Thomas is quite different from his cousin. Thomas is goofy and upbeat. He is also a nerd.
He could have grown up in Beverly Hills, in Cleveland, or on a third generation farm in
the Midwest, and he would still be a nerd. His parents were killed in a fire when he was
an infant. Victor’s father saved his life, and Thomas was raised by his grand mother,
a kindly woman who seems a bit nutty. Where Victor has disdain for his father and bitter
memories which have grown harder and sharper as he has grown, Thomas’ are positive,
somehow enhanced in his mind. Obviously, both boys have seen many of the same things but
there recollections are very different.
One can say that Thomas creates myths and recounts stories that become bigger than life in
their telling. Listening to Thomas and knowing events from these stories, one senses
wonder. Cynical Victor can recall and recount some of these same experiences, but his
accounts tend to shrink things down to an ugly picture, reflecting his unpleasant memories
and his way of looking at life. Most people would prefer Thomas’
stories to his cousin’s statements both because of what Thomas puts in his tales and
because of what Victor leaves out of his: A joy of life. (At one point Victor tries to
promote a myth, but he fails; one senses that he does not really believe in it and,
besides, it is the white man's myth.)
Sometimes the cousins give contradictory statements about an incident, but mostly Victor
and Thomas offer views of life and the world that are not so much opposite sides of the
truth as different aspects which, if heard separately and by themselves, give misleading,
incomplete pictures. It is only when two such retellings are put together, as in this
film, that an audience can realize something closer to the truth.
Smoke Signals allows the viewer to witness Victor and Thomas face their dichotomy.
Victor’s father had left the reservation years ago when his son was still a child.
One day Victor’s mother receives a call from Arizona. Her husband has died and
someone needs to come down to take care of his affects. Victor chooses to do this task and
reluctantly agrees to allow Thomas to come along. For Victor this is a journey of duty;
for Thomas an outing of adventure and discovery. Their travels and experiences in Arizona
are inevitably marked by conflict and strain, but through it all something happens that
actually allows the two to become closer and to appreciate the other more. In a way they
gain a vantage that all of us at one point or another need: An ability to see beyond
one’s own distorted views, a gain that makes it possible for us to grow.
Available from Buena Vista Home Video
Rated PG-13 by M.P.A.A. |
©
Miramax.All Rights Reserved.
©
Miramax.All Rights Reserved.
|
