Customer Reviews

Rain in the Mountains

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The story here is okay, but the acting, directing, and photography leave much to be desired. This was clearly made on a shoestring budget, but even at that, there should have been more quality control. If you want a better film about Native Americans, try Smoke Signals or Christmas in the Clouds.

This film shows its indie, low budget origins. The script is disjointed and contains too many fey, improvised characters - such as the dead man who cavorts across the landscape dispensing mystical wisdoms. To be fair, some of the annoying intrusions of this impossible fellow were probably due to misfortunes that dogged the filming of this movie. There's no Director's commentary on this DVD, as the jacket might lead a person to believe. But there's a printed Director's statement. When you lean in close to read the small print of this statement, you learn that the lead actor in "Rain" had a stroke during filming. The Director had to shuffle scenes and make other adjustments to fill in the gaps caused by this setback. That's probably how the dead man's role got expanded.

Despite the high school recital last-minute, run-on, pulling together in the face of catastrophe quality of this movie though, there is definitely something memorable and heartwarming about "Rain." Steve Pierre, that lead actor, plays his part with irrepressible ebullience.

Pierre is a Native American who feels called in the film to rally his people back to the old ways. However, since he has never hunted, fished, or done anything that could even remotely be classified as "Indian" - he faces quite a challenge. His attempts to return to a traditional way of living only end in a series of quixotic misadventures.

I didn't get many actual belly laughs here, but I did get some chuckles - for example, in the scene where Pierre takes his son to a town elder to ask the older man's advice about how to proceed in restoring the old ways. The elder speaks only in his Native language. Pierre, to save face with his son, pretends to understand. He translates the elder's idle offer of a beer as a mystic utterance of wisdom about "following the path."

After involving himself in his series of blunders, Pierre feels momentarily depressed, a failure. He apologizes to his son for being such an embarrassment. But his son knows better. His son cheerfully reassures his Dad that he wouldn't have any other man as his father. The boy sums up by rejoicing that none of his friends have fathers who are nearly so "interesting.'

I felt the same way. I ended up wanting to spend more time with Pierre's unique character. He would make a wonderful centerpiece for a TV series. He calls for development, for our getting to know him over weeks and months. I hope someone out there will tackle turning this great premise into a "Northern Exposure" type of series.

I wanted to like this movie but I just couldn't. The writing, directing, and acting were too sophomoric for me to enjoy. The basic premise was good and very Native American-like (think trickster meets modern Indian) but the writer-director could not pull it off.

There are a number of great Indian movies out there that work, and some wonderful must-see artistic beginnings (eg. Fancy Dancing by Sherman Alexie), but this movie falls into neither category. It is great high school material, but nothing more.

Everything about this movie is bad, bad, bad. By far the worst acting I've ever seen. Couldn't wait until the awful thing ended.

the main character brings top notch performance. although the hd dvd is not much of an upgrade compared to sd dvd, the movie by itself is still wirth a look.

This movie is refreshingly wonderful. While being very funny, it is also filled with many authentic Native nuances. Steve Pierre is delightful and captivating. The intrinsic innocence and purity of this movie gives it a depth and quality that the expensive, over-produced "Hollywood" movies could never capture. Even the flatness with some of the acting invites you into an authenticity of this very pleasant comedy. I highly recommend this movie. It is such a nice break from the deluge of over marketed,poor quality, made-to-make-someone-wealthy movies from an industry that lost touch with simple Quality a long time ago.

This movie is great. While being extremely funny, it also shows the plight of many Native Americans who are trying to live a modern life while trying to connect with the culture and past.

Saw the movie at the Salem Film Festival. Very pleasantly surprised. This movie has been compared to Smoke Signals, but it is MUCH better. Highly reccomend the movie.

When Homer Simpson does something stupid, no real group will be oppressed. No one would hold anything against modern Spaniard because in the classic story, Don Quixote was chasing windmills. This movie showed a Native American man taking one stupid action after another. There are centuries-old, disgusting stereotypes that say Native men are stupid. This movie tries to brush things of as "just comedy." But it could have the actual potential of hurting living Native men. This movie is not funny; it's damaging, prejudiced, and disrespectful. This movie mocks the honorable attempt by Natives to juggle with modern with the traditional. It makes something look foolish that is actually quite praiseworthy.

Here's one example in the film. The main character says, "We must hunt buffalo again, as our ancestors did." He uses a BB gun, rather than an effective rifle or bow-and-arrow. He chases a cow, rather than a buffalo. Further, he seems to be from a Pacific tribe that probably fished salmon and never had contact with buffalo, as the Plains Indians did. Again, not funny: it could exacerbate racist ideas that harm American Indian men.

This main character states that he grew up off the reservation and is thus disconnected from "his people." However, he has a Native wife. His son has a Native good friend. He is familiar with other Natives. There are ways that he could help his community without knowing the traditional ways. Save money to start a scholarship; mentor a Native child from a troubled home.

Excellent films about Native Americans like "Smoke Signals" or "The Business of Fancydancing" have been made. Why produce garbage like this now? Why not producing something powerful and uplifting, rather than junk that will only harm modern Native men? I'm shocked and outraged by this "film."