Smoke Signals movie review

For my movie review, I decided on the movie Smoke Signals, directed by Chris Eyre which features Adam Beach and Evan Adams as the main characters. I chose this movie because it takes a look into the world of Native American culture in modern day society, and how their lives have been shaped by their forced reservation living. The movie starts out with the two main characters, Victor and Thomas's parents dying in a house fire that, in the beginning, leaves the house fire to the viewer as a mystery. A majority of the movie involves Victor and Thomas traveling to Arizona to retrieve Victor's fathers ashes. The movie exudes a cultural, humorous, and has an older feel than movies today because it was filmed in the 90's. The on-going conflict occuring in Smoke Signals is between Victor and Thomas, which involves Victor trying to teach Thomas not to be so nerdy and annoying, and that he should act more Stoic, or without such intense passion and emotion in his actions. Victor comes from this stand-point because he is a much taller, masculine looking Indian, compared to Thomas who is scrawny and geeky looking who wears a suit and tie and keeps his hair in braids. Victor is constantly annoyed by Thomas's consistent story telling and babbling about utter nonsense, that of which Victor trys to change by telling him "Get Stoic! You need to start acting like a real Indian or else white people will just walk all over you" One of the messages in the movie could be to respect your elders, and no matter how far you need to travel or to what extent you need to go to give that respect, do it. Another good message is to be tolerant of the ways people are, because there is always a reason for why someone is acting that way. Understanding someone can break down many barriers that cause constant discomfort and quarrel between humans.