Directed and co-produced by: Chris Eyre
Screenplay by: Sherman Alexie
The movie, Smoke Signals included a theme of the
"American road trip" and discovering the truth behind a father's
past. All within these themes, you also realize a deeper irony with the history
of Native Americans. Throughout the movie, there are also many signs of
symbolism as Victor unfolds the truth within this journey with Thomas.
In
the beginning of the film, the opening fire seems to frame the film. This fire
immediately draws you in to where the story begins: asks you questions like
"How did this fire start? Who is responsible for this fire?" Of course,
the audience does not get the answers to these questions immediately. As this
fire is taking place, Arnold Joseph seems like the ideal Native American hero
that rescues the baby from the fire. It is ironic how the man that saves the
baby, is also the man that started the fire and is the reason why Thomas'
parents die in the fire that night. That same night, you get a sense that a
little bit of Arnold Joseph also dies in the fire that night.
I found this movie to have irony or symbolism in almost every
scene. The inclusion of magic in the movie symbolizes the manipulation of
perception and illusion that is portrayed throughout the movie. Within a magic
trick, it all depends on how the magician follows through with the act and how
well the audience perceives the trick. In this case, Arnold Joseph is the
magician, and he is always playing tricks on Victor. I believe this shows how
Victor was always blinded by the truth of the night of the fire, whereas Thomas
seemed to the know the truth this entire time. I found it interesting how
Victor explained how his father was always doing magic tricks where he would
make things disappear until he vanished for good, meaning he left them and
never returned.
I also found it ironic at the fact that Victor seemed like such a
warrior and tough guy compared to Thomas. He seemed like he knew it all,
especially during the bus ride scene with Thomas. He tells Thomas, "Don't
you know how to be a real Indian?" He explains to Thomas how you have to
look mean- like you just hunted a buffalo. He also tells Thomas that he has to
know how to use his hair- "an Indian isn't anything without his
hair." -This part was extremely ironic because Victor is the one that ends
up cutting his hair towards the end of the movie. It seemed as though Victor
knew how to be Indian and yet at the same time, he was oblivious to the truth.
The significance of storytelling also played a huge role
throughout the movie. It was interesting how Thomas was constantly making up
stories and yet knew the truth about Arnold Joseph the entire time. I also
found it ironic during the flashback scene of Arnold Joseph telling Suzy about
the basketball game with Victor. He lied about the ending of the game; he had
told Suzy how Victor had made the winning shot and "for at least one day,
the Indians won." This was a powerful quote from the movie. Arnold
Joseph's statement related back to history. Indians were always inferior to
everyone else; they lost their land and many have lost their tribes. I found it
interesting how even in something as simple as a basketball game, the Indians
still could not win and Arnold Joseph had to make the story up as if it was
something he always wished would someday come true. It was overall a crushing
reality that they were always the underdogs- in history and during that
basketball game.
One metaphor that occurred in the movie that I did not understand
until class discussion was the meaning of the car going backwards. After our
discussion, I was explained how the car going backwards was a metaphor for the
quote, "you have to go backwards in order to go forward." This
overall explains how Victor reminisced about his own life and relationship with
his father and learned to accept his father's actions. Although it seemed as if
he had complete anger towards him in the beginning, especially when he
reflected back when his father hit him, he somewhat understood towards the end
of the movie to forgive his father.
The closing fire in the movie seemed to signify the removal or
cleansing of negativity. Now the truth was revealed about the first fire and
now this fire was an actual smoke signal of the truth. This fire was the
acceptance of the truth and letting go of all the bad and embracing a positive
attitude of the truth.
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