Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 11-September-05
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Smoke Signals (1998)

Rarely does a film make me want to read the book that inspired it, since I prefer to ingest a tale in one medium and avoid competing images in my mind. But rewatching "Smoke Signals" has convinced me to pick up a copy of Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. If this collection of stories contains as much humor and heart as its cinematic offspring, it will probably enhance my enjoyment of the movie's themes and characters rather than detract from it.

Adapted for the screen by Alexie himself (and directed by Chris Eyre), "Smoke Signals" is a traditional road-trip-to-deal-with-your-past movie with an unusual Native American stamp. Beginning on the Coeur D'Alene reservation in Idaho, the plot revolves around two young men who grew up together but were always at loggerheads. One, Thomas (Evan Adams), is an orphaned nerd who struggles with self-expression, and the other, Victor (Adam Beach), is a scowling golden boy who wrestles with long-standing anger. In flashbacks we see how the two spent their childhood in the shadow of Victor's father (Gary Farmer), a volatile but charismatic alcoholic who left one day and never came back. When the call comes from Phoenix that he has died, Victor and Thomas hit the road to claim his ashes and make peace with him in whatever way they can.

Themes of death and difficult childhood may sound heavy, but "Smoke Signals" is never depressing or grim. Just as Alexie jokes freely about what it means to be an Indian in the United States, he finds lightness in the process of dealing with others — friends, family, strangers — while traveling through life. A pair of quirky encounters with "Northern Exposure" alums doesn't add much, but Thomas' attempt at a new look and Victor's chant about John Wayne's teeth are comedic gems. Their experience deepens when they arrive in Phoenix and retrieve the deceased's effects from his neighbor (Irene Bedard), who offers a different perspective on the man they thought they knew. This, along with the return trip, allows them to forge a better understanding of each other, which doesn't erase their glaring differences but adds another link to the history that binds them.

Victor and Thomas' journey is one which many people take both in fiction and real life, yet something renders it meaningful instead of routine. Surely the author's grace and the actors' sincerity play a part; so does the Indian POV, which enhances the notion of ancestry as a power that shapes our lives. Whatever the reason, "Smoke Signals" is a wonderful movie about family and community and clearing the hurdles one needs to grow up. Everybody should appreciate the message it sends.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.