Movie Quote of the Day: Smoke Signals

Starting to get busy with school, but I'm not going to feel guilty about not keeping up with this thing because nobody reads it anyway. Anyhoo, I special ordered in Smoke Signals, which finally came in late last week. In Europe the film is called Phoenix, Arizona. Enjoyable film directed by Chris Eyre, written by Sherman Alexie loosely based on Alexie's book "The Long Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven". The IMDB trivia category for this film says that it's the first film written, directed and co-produced by a Native American. There is a lot of Rez humour and the characters of Victor Josef(Adam Beach, love him) and Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) are very compelling and complement each other well. I love the parts where Randy Peone (John Trudell), the D.J. of the rez's radio station K-REZ, asks Lester Fallsapart (Leonard George) in the traffic van which is permanently stuck at a crossroads for the traffic report. Lester sits on top of the van in a lawn chair with an umbrella hat on reporting the traffic with things like, "A big truck went by.....it's gone now" and "...Timmy and James went by in a yellow car and they were arguin'.....ain't no traffic, really".

Victor and Thomas go on a road trip to get Victor's dad, as he has passed away. Victor hasn't seen his father since he abandoned Victor and his mother many years earlier. The running theme throughout the film seems to be coming to terms with one's past and family, no matter how bad they might have been. There is a beautiful poem by Dick Lourie that Thomas recites in a voice over at the end of the film. I won't give away the end, but I will give you the poem the film ends with and combined with the visual imagery makes a very touching moment. Here it is, the extra long ass movie quote of the day......

How do we forgive our Fathers?
Maybe in a dream
Do we forgive our Fathers for leaving us too often or forever
when we were little?

Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage
or making us nervous
because there never seemed to be any rage there at all.

Do we forgive our Fathers for marrying or not marrying our Mothers?
For Divorcing or not divorcing our Mothers?

And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness?
Shall we forgive them for pushing or leaning
for shutting doors
for speaking through walls
or never speaking
or never being silent?

Do we forgive our Fathers in our age or in theirs
or their deaths
saying it to them or not saying it?

If we forgive our Fathers what is left?

More ramblings to come....