Smoke Signals Chris Eyre Digital Life DVD

Smoke Signals
starring: Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Irene Bedard, Gary Farmer, Tantoo Cardinal
directed by: Chris Eyre

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Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9786305428411
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
ISBN: 6305428417
Label: Miramax Films
Manufacturer: Miramax Films
Number Of Items: 1
Picture Format: Letterbox
Publisher: Miramax Films
Region Code: 1
Release Date: September 28, 1999
Running Time: 89 minutes
Sales Rank: 1373
Studio: Miramax Films
Theatrical Release Date: June 26, 1998

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Editorial Review:

Description:
Critically acclaimed as one of the best films of the year, SMOKE SIGNALS was also a distinguished winner at the Sundance Film Festival! Though Victor and Thomas have lived their entire young lives in the same tiny town, they couldn't have less in common! But when Victor is urgently called away, it's Thomas who comes up with the money to pay for his trip. There's just one thing Victor has to do: take Thomas along for the ride! You're in for a rare and entertaining comic treat as this most unlikely pair leave home on what becomes an unexpectedly unforgettable adventure of friendship and discovery!

Amazon.com:
Based on a couple of short stories (from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven) by Sherman Alexie, Smoke Signals is a lean and assured feature that speaks well of its lengthy, rich evolution, including a development stint at Sundance. The first feature made by a Native American crew and creative team, the film concerns two young Idaho men with radically different memories of one Arnold Joseph (Gary Farmer), a former resident of the reservation who split years before and has just died in Phoenix. Arnold's strapping, popular son, Victor (Adam Beach), remembers him best as an alcoholic, occasionally abusive father who drove off one day and never came back. By contrast, Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams), whom Arnold had saved from certain death years earlier, has chosen to exaggerate the man's life and deeds in a mythmaking fashion that drives Victor crazy. Circumstances bring the two together, however, in a bus ride to retrieve Arnold's ashes. There, in Phoenix, a confrontation with the reality of the dead man's fullest legacy has a profound effect on both characters. Alexie, who wrote the script and was personally involved in all aspects of the production, and first-time director Chris Eyre are so polished in their approach that you can barely feel the cinematic engine at work here. This is the kind of movie in which the characters seem to be driving everything forward, a captivating and pleasant experience that gets a little too tidy at the end (can we call a moratorium on scenes of human ashes lovingly disposed to the winds?), but which is undeniably moving. The cast, including Irene Bedard (the voice of and physical inspiration for Disney's Pocahontas) is outstanding. --Tom Keogh

Digital Life Reviews

Customer Reviews

Average Rating: out of 5 stars

Rating:

- True to The Life
I saw this movie when it first came out, with a Cheyenne friend of mine with whom I shared memories and context. At the end of the film, I sat silent in my seat, ashamed for him to know I was crying. I wept for many reasons: hunger and thirst for good native stories; grief of my own and that for my child whose life could well come to resemble any of these characters' - something only time could tell. The script pulls off an important trick: presenting archetypal constants whilst retaining authenticity to The Life.

I recall my gratitude upon the emergence of Alexie: finally! An Indian Writer who is literary, a WRITER first, and then native. Delicious! Smoke Signals was the first of many films breaking away from cheesy characterizations of tribals, the first to move in close and begin to explore native life on the human scale, without losing the very specific inflections therein.

We who live ... Read More

Rating:

- Beautiful universal story
There is something so beautiful about this movie, and yet I find it hard to explain. I try to recall this movie whenever I run into someone I can not find redeemable. Sometimes you can only focus on the bad, and sometimes you only focus on the good, and sometimes you discover the middle.

Victor Joseph and his friend Thomas are taking a road trip. Thomas and Victor are on their way to pay their last respects to Victor's dad who was living in Phoenix. Victor needs some financial assistance and Thomas is willing to help so long as he can go with. Victor needs to come to grips with his past, how he feels about his father who has passed away and he hasn't seen in 10 years, he needs to stop living with a mask on. Thomas seems terribly annoying, but it's Thomas recollections of everything good that help Victor see that not all is lost. Thomas' positive energy helps elevate the mood of the movie as well. Suzy Song ... Read More

Rating:

- Universal Themes from a Native American perspective
On the Coeur D'Alene reservation in Idaho, not much seems to be happening, as witnessed by the deadpan "traffic" and "weather" reports of local radio KREZ. But for two young men, Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, (Evan Adams) their lives became entwined when as babies, Victor's father, Arnold (Gary Farmer), saved Thomas's life in a fire that consumed his parents. Arnold, an abusive alcoholic who was traumatized by the tragedy, deserts his family and eventually dies in his trailer in the Arizona desert. The two boys, who have a grating love-hate relationship, travel down to retrieve his remains. Victor is all bottled rage behind his set smile. Thomas is like a tactless Jiminy Cricket, forcing his friend to face his currently unbearable reality. Meeting Suzy Song (Irene Bedard), a neighbor (and surrogate daughter) of Arnold's, the circle of all their lives comes into completion. This film is not so much ... Read More

Rating:

- Storytelling
I had this on VHS and I finally got it DVD. It is still nice to watch after not seeing it for years. The story is timeless, the acting and directing are fantastic. What I like about Smoke Signals is it's an original film about American Indians and it's not everyday you see movies about our people. It's like a breath of fresh air to watch this film. I catch myself looking in the background at glimpses of scenery of the the mountains and deserts I am so far away from. It gets me out of the hellhole of southern california that I'm in. I even like some of the background music they use in the scenes, it's soulstirring. I'm just glad I have Smoke Signals as part of my DVD collection again. FRYBREADPOWER!!

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