Smoke Signals: A Film About Personal and Cultural Histories
Smoke Signals premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and won awards at the Sundance Film Festival, the Independent Spirit Awards, First Americans in the Arts, Gotham Awards, Tokyo International Film Festival and the Florida Film Critics Circle Awards. Alexie explained that,”When you see the movie, you realize that , in a contemporary sense, smoke signals are about calls of distress, calls for help. That’s really what this movie is about- Victor, Thomas, and everybody else is calling for help. It’s also about the theme of fire. The smoke that originates from the first fire in the movie is what causes these events, and the smoke from the second fire brings about the beginning of resolution. So I just thought Smoke Signals worked very poetically. It’s something very memorable, and nobody is going to screw up that title.”
In order to fully understand the concept of the film, ‘Smoke Signals’, we must take into consideration many of the poignant phrases and teachings within the film itself. Early on in the film it is stated that, “Sometimes to go forward you have to drive in reverse”. This phrase directs the framework of thought that the film follows. It is about dealing with personal issues in order to fully understand a situation and move on. A strong Indian theme is the circular motion of life and all actions have consequences. It it clear that both Victor and Thomas are somewhat troubled by they’re pasts and need to deal with their own personal tradegies.
It was essential that the characters returned to the origins of their troubles and accepted or changed what they could in order to move on. It is also important to note that after the adventure of the road-trip, both men return home to the reservation where they find some sort of closure and safety. Alexie refers to a poem by Adrian C. Lewis when he says that, “We all have to go back with pain in our hearts to the place we grew up to grow out of”.
‘Smoke Signals’ is a real film with believable characters, set within the Native American society that audiences can easily relate to. It deals with many Native American cultural beliefs and issues throughout the film. Fire is of great signifigance throughout the film, Thomas’s surname examplifies this, Buildthefire. With the title of the film being ‘Smoke Signals’, this is unmistakingly an Indian film. The character Thomas is marked as someone who is spiritual, who has Shaman qualities and wants to follow that direction. He follows the traditional Indian ways as best as he can and sees story telling as his purpose.
Thomas’s knowledge of Indian ways are reflections of what he has learnt about Native Americans on TV, this symbolizes the shift from tradition Native life to a more Euro-American lifestyle in some reservations. However, it is through Thomas’s narration that the story is told. It can be said that today, Native American men have lost their traditional roles as the traditional hunter and warrior. They arenow changing to fit into the American culture and also for survival. In the case of Victor’s father, he ran away from his responsabilities as a husband and father. He was in turmoil surrounding the death of Thomas’s parents, became influenced by alcohol as coping mechanism to deal with his guilt, abused his wife, became lost within the Indian society on the reservation, and was utterly disillusioned.
He fled what can be looked upon as a dead-end predicament and abandoned his son, leaving Victor with feelings of bitterness and confusion. Victor is sent on a passage of self discovery, struggling physically and emotionally to find the remains of the alcoholic father abandoned him as a child. Like Victor, Thomas has had to grow up without a father figure, his parents were killed when he was a baby and he grows up with no full understanding of himself or his past.
Sherman Alexie felt that humour was an extremely effective political tool, which reaches accross the board as a way of dealing with the issues that needed to be addressed. He is able to addressserious issues by using humour. Alexie is able to draw on his own experiences as a Native American and based the film on an experience he had of a road-trip with a friend. Alexie also stated that he felt Victor and Thomas were reflactions of his own character, stating that, “I develop within the movie”. The film is about human nature and circumstances that mark the characters of Victor and Thomas.
The main event interlinking these two men’s lives in the first fire in which Thomas’ parents are killed. It is only by going on their journey together that they are able to piece together an understanding as to why Victor Joseph left the reservation and where both men came from. From this knowledge of their shared heritage, Victor and Thomas are then able to deal with their own personal histories.
