Smoke Signals Movie Essay

Smoke Signals is unique among movies, in that it is the first feature film to be written, directed, co-produced, and starring Native American Indians. Most viewers of the film can easily pick up on how comfortable the creators are with its setting and its characters. We can sense that this was done by people who genuinely care about the Native American people at large.
The film opens with a flashback to a Native American reservation in Idaho. In the scene the viewer watches as an infant, Thomas Builds-the Fire, one of the film’s two main characters, is rescued from a burning house by being thrown from a second story window, and is caught in the arms of Arnold Joseph. Arnold is a neighbor with a serious drinking problem, who is later kicked …show more content…
This belief allows him to protect himself from the unconscious idea that the reason his father left him and his mother, wasn’t because his mother kicked him out, but was because of him. When they arrive in Phoenix, this unconscious belief that Victor has had for so long, is torn down by new evidence presented to him by his father’s neighbor in Phoenix. After hearing this evidence, he is forced to realize, that it wasn’t his fault that his father ran away, and that blaming himself for something he had nothing to do with is an absurd way to live.
This movie had all the makes of the classic road movie, trip that turns into as much of a journey of philosophical exploration as a physical one, and along the way, Victor and Thomas learn life lesson from each other. Thomas, through his use of storytelling helps show Victor that there’s more to life just unforgiveness and pent-up anger. In turn, Victor teaches Thomas how to come to grips with true ancestry and not some depiction he saw in some a movie. For the viewer, the movie offers us the opportunity to look passed the stereotypes that have been places on the Native American culture at