Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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79 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than Smoke Signals, September 20, 2002
I just saw this film at the Native American Museum in New York during it's premiere in this city. It's an amazing film. Darker and more thought provoking than Smoke Signals, it still maintains the sense of humor so characteristic of Chris Eyre's work. The story takes place in Pine Ridge County, SD, which is, as we quickly learn from the film, the poorest county in the United States. It is also Oglala Lakota Indian reservation. The film is shot on location, with all the starkness of the surroundings carefully exposed. The narrative revolves around two brothers. Rudy (Eric Schweig) is a cop and a vigilante, who is using legal and extra-legal means to help his community. Moggy (Graham Greene) is a triple Purple Heart Vietnam veteran and a chronic alcoholic who tries to maintain a sense of humor in face of misery and depression. Deep love between the brothers serves as the backbone of the plot. Things get out of hand when Rudy's vigilantism causes Moggy's suffering. Chris Eyre employs both tragic and comic elements to give the film a fresh and unique dynamic. And a provocative ending.
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63 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Thoughtful, uncomfortable and sad. But I learned a lot., June 6, 2003
This 2002 film takes place on the Pine Ridge Reservation in North Dakota. It's a sad place, steeped in poverty and alcoholism. The camera brings us into the dilapidated homes and shows us the barren terrain. And the Director, Chris Eyre, has wisely chosen an all-Native cast. Don't be fooled by their Anglican sounding names. They're all Indians, either from America or Canada.The story is about two brothers in their late forties. One is a cop and the other is a burnt-out alcoholic who sometimes thinks he's still in Vietnam. Flashbacks show their abusive childhood and their dependence on one another. The storyline shows us how Eric Schweig, cast as the cop brother, helps his brother over and over again. Graham Greene is cast as the alcoholic and even though we see him mostly drunk and creating chaos for everyone, get to know him as a real person with hopes and dreams and missteps along the way. We learn about life on the reservation and the history of the massacre at Wounded Knee. And we also learn why the Mt. Rushmore carving of the four American presidents is so upsetting to the Indians who see rocks as sacred. As the story moves along, we see the cop brother become a vigilante and solve a murder investigation. Later, he sets a liquor store on fire. When his brother is burned in the fire, the story comes to a pivotal point and we get a glimpse of the unwavering love of the brothers for each other and the sense of family in the entire community. This is a thoughtful movie that's a bit uncomfortable to watch. It left me sad and pensive. And yet it taught me something too. Recommended.
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent movie . . . but read the book, November 5, 2004
Native American director Chris Eyre has created another excellent film about life on the reservation, told from the Indian point of view. Other reviews here represent the content of the film well, its story line involving two brothers and its social commentary, exposing the impact of poverty and alcoholism on the Lakota Sioux descendants of Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.
The movie, however, provides only a partial view of the book it's based on by Indian writer, Adrian Louis. His novel, "Skins," has enough material for a 10-part miniseries. It immerses the reader in the deeper complexities of its subject matter, exploring the dimensions of its characters more thoroughly (and with darker humor) and conveying a great deal more about life on the reservation, with its compelling mix of Indian and white cultures and the resulting ambiguities, competing world views, and conflicted values. It is significant that Iktomi, the trickster spirit and shape-shifter, is a central theme in both novel and film, for appearance and reality, wisdom and stupidity, pride and shame, love and rage are all in a continuing dance for dominance.
Rudy, the Indian cop, portrays these confusing conflicts beautifully, representing both the law in his tribal police uniform and vigilante justice in his blackface and pantyhose mask. The author's book explores other dimensions of Rudy's confusion by letting us learn more about his relationships with women. In the novel he is married and estranged from his wife, and we follow the rocky ups and downs of his growing attraction to his cousin's wife, Stella, while he carries on with other men's wives as well. Afflicted with hypertension, he takes meds that affect his sexual performance, and much of the novel traces the rising and falling cycles of his libido, all of which are unpredictable and seemingly under the spell of Iktomi. Finally, while the film makes clear the love that bonds Rudy to his brother Mogie, the depth of that love comes across more strongly in the novel, as well as the demons that haunt Mogie and produce brotherly conflict.
See the movie first, so you can more easily visualize the world that Adrian Louis describes and enjoy the wonderful performances of Eric Schweig and Graham Greene. Then read the book and allow yourself to know this subject and comprehend the Lakota culture more deeply. The ending, involving Mt. Rushmore, which is given an abruptly abbreviated treatment in the movie, will also make a lot more sense.
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