Smoke Signals Film Analysis

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Smoke Signals (1998) was the first feature film written, directed, and co-produced by Native Americans to receive a major distribution deal; in addition, all the actors who portrayed Indians are also Native Americans. Sherman Alexie wrote the screenplay based on stories from his book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Smoke Signals and first-time director Chris Eyre received the Audience Award and the Filmmakers Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. This film explores the relationship between Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, two young Indian men living on the Coeur d’Alene reservation in Idaho. The stoic, athletic Victor wants little to do with the misfit storyteller Thomas; however, when Victor learns that his…show more content…
Identify some of the humorous scenes in the film. Why might a Native audience find them funny? 8.What does being an Indian mean to Victor and Thomas? (Recall especially their conversation on the bus when Victor ridicules Thomas for watching Dances with Wolves so many times). Where do you think that Victor has gotten his ideas about how an Indian should act? 9.Discuss the following comment by Sherman Alexie. Do you agree with his understanding of fiction? What do you see as the role of Thomas’ stories in the movie? “It’s all based on the basic theme, for me, that storytellers are essentially liars. At one point in the movie, Suzy asks Thomas, “Do you want lies or do you want the truth?,” and he says, “I want both.” I think that line is what reveals most about Thomas’s character and the nature of his storytelling and the nature, in my opinion, of storytelling in general, which is that fiction blurs and nobody knows what the truth is. And within the movie itself, nobody knows what the truth is.” (“Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An Interview with Sherman Alexie,” by Dennis West and Joan M. West, Cineaste 23 (Fall, 1998): 28 (5 pages),

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