Surprising film indeed! It is Canadian and that is quite visible. Yet, that film tells a few disquieting things.
The first one is that we have teenagers, both boys and girls, a couple of mothers but NO fathers. That is surprising because I have never seen anywhere this idea that the Indian family was mother-centered with an absentee father, or are we to understand all fathers are in prison? This is of course very important since then the boys as well as the girls grow without the authority and the role model of a father. The result is thus going to be great fuzziness among boys as well as girls about what the heritage of the tribe, of the Indian culture may be, and that produces adults that are rootless.
The second thing is that they speak of a reservation but it is surprisingly not closed. Apart from the few half derelict buildings that are the homes of Indian fatherless families, some kind of cheap prefabs more than real houses, we see no Indian institution or Indian mark anywhere in this reservation. Is that the Canadian model? I have read a lot about Indian in French speaking Quebec. Here we are in English speaking Canada. But what I see does not correspond to what I have read on the Quebec side about the integration of Indians and the respect that is due to their traditions and cultures.
The third element is that there is a police, a "tribal" police mind you, all white and particularly anti-Indian not to say racist. An Indian girl is assassinated by a white man. He gets a two year sentence for it and even so he is apparently free one week later. Canadian justice indeed! Why not? But that is surprising.
The Indians want to take justice in their own hands. The boys are planning the assassination of this white murderer. They fail and yet the chap gets killed with a knife, his throat is slit. At once the "tribal" police captures all the male Indians, make them undress down to their shorts, we can imagine they may even have gone further, at least we saw them kicked out of the "tribal" police station in their boxer's shorts and barefoot. The "tribal" police will never be able to prove who did it, certainly not the Indian boys they brought in and detained. Is that what the police is in a reservation? The definition of reservation has little to do with what I know on the US side. We are here dealing with nothing but some colonial repressive uniform-wearing white militia.
Hope is in the end of the film, but a very bitter hope. The white murderer was killed by an Indian girl, alone, probably by approaching him sexually to get close enough. The main teenager, Silas, makes her burn her clothing when he reaches their prefab. But that is not justice and that is a shame Canada does not have a judicial system that should be equal for all.
The second hopeful element is that Silas and his closest friend are accepted in the car-mechanics school, which means he moves away for a year or so and goes to the white city close to the reservation. They might get some qualification that could mean a job. But their education is far from being a priority in Canada. And what about girls? Nothing visible here.
In one word then the picture is bleak and the story is squalid. If that is the fate of Indians in Canada today, and the film is rather recent, 1994, it does not reflect at all the great evolution that had been taking place in the USA starting in 1969 with the American Indian Movement. There is one episode toward the end of the film about some kind of Indian awareness: an activist is coming to speak to the people of the reservation one day and he calls for some action from Indians. He is accompanied by two white police officers in civilian suits, though we do not know what they are precisely. He asks them to stand and he mocks them as some kind of infringement on his freedom of movement and speech. Two of the boys take his suggestion in their own hands and go out and destroy one beautiful car they consider must be the car of the two police officers. Unluckily it is the car of the speaker and the two cops have a simple, even drab car and they gallantly drive the speaker to his hotel, which means outside the reservation. In other words that speaker has a luxury car and he is escorted by two cops more for his comfort and security than to infringe on his freedom of speech.
That last note is definitely negative and hopeless. There is no future for Indians from the Indians, by the Indians. And what's more, Silas's sister who has married a white lawyer, can't get a child from him because she says his spermatozoon count is low. She has Gooch, her old boyfriend she did not remained faithful to during his three years in prison, sleep with her in order to get pregnant while the boys are spending the night with her husband they initiate to some kind of Indian name-giving ritual that is in fact some kind of practical joke from them but he plays the game through and in the night he loses his glasses, hence he cannot see very well what is happening: he is being played the Mickey out of him while his wife is getting impregnated by her ex- boyfriend.
And they say this is the voice of the future. I mean that future does not seem to be very sunny and bright.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
The first one is that we have teenagers, both boys and girls, a couple of mothers but NO fathers. That is surprising because I have never seen anywhere this idea that the Indian family was mother-centered with an absentee father, or are we to understand all fathers are in prison? This is of course very important since then the boys as well as the girls grow without the authority and the role model of a father. The result is thus going to be great fuzziness among boys as well as girls about what the heritage of the tribe, of the Indian culture may be, and that produces adults that are rootless.
The second thing is that they speak of a reservation but it is surprisingly not closed. Apart from the few half derelict buildings that are the homes of Indian fatherless families, some kind of cheap prefabs more than real houses, we see no Indian institution or Indian mark anywhere in this reservation. Is that the Canadian model? I have read a lot about Indian in French speaking Quebec. Here we are in English speaking Canada. But what I see does not correspond to what I have read on the Quebec side about the integration of Indians and the respect that is due to their traditions and cultures.
The third element is that there is a police, a "tribal" police mind you, all white and particularly anti-Indian not to say racist. An Indian girl is assassinated by a white man. He gets a two year sentence for it and even so he is apparently free one week later. Canadian justice indeed! Why not? But that is surprising.
The Indians want to take justice in their own hands. The boys are planning the assassination of this white murderer. They fail and yet the chap gets killed with a knife, his throat is slit. At once the "tribal" police captures all the male Indians, make them undress down to their shorts, we can imagine they may even have gone further, at least we saw them kicked out of the "tribal" police station in their boxer's shorts and barefoot. The "tribal" police will never be able to prove who did it, certainly not the Indian boys they brought in and detained. Is that what the police is in a reservation? The definition of reservation has little to do with what I know on the US side. We are here dealing with nothing but some colonial repressive uniform-wearing white militia.
Hope is in the end of the film, but a very bitter hope. The white murderer was killed by an Indian girl, alone, probably by approaching him sexually to get close enough. The main teenager, Silas, makes her burn her clothing when he reaches their prefab. But that is not justice and that is a shame Canada does not have a judicial system that should be equal for all.
The second hopeful element is that Silas and his closest friend are accepted in the car-mechanics school, which means he moves away for a year or so and goes to the white city close to the reservation. They might get some qualification that could mean a job. But their education is far from being a priority in Canada. And what about girls? Nothing visible here.
In one word then the picture is bleak and the story is squalid. If that is the fate of Indians in Canada today, and the film is rather recent, 1994, it does not reflect at all the great evolution that had been taking place in the USA starting in 1969 with the American Indian Movement. There is one episode toward the end of the film about some kind of Indian awareness: an activist is coming to speak to the people of the reservation one day and he calls for some action from Indians. He is accompanied by two white police officers in civilian suits, though we do not know what they are precisely. He asks them to stand and he mocks them as some kind of infringement on his freedom of movement and speech. Two of the boys take his suggestion in their own hands and go out and destroy one beautiful car they consider must be the car of the two police officers. Unluckily it is the car of the speaker and the two cops have a simple, even drab car and they gallantly drive the speaker to his hotel, which means outside the reservation. In other words that speaker has a luxury car and he is escorted by two cops more for his comfort and security than to infringe on his freedom of speech.
That last note is definitely negative and hopeless. There is no future for Indians from the Indians, by the Indians. And what's more, Silas's sister who has married a white lawyer, can't get a child from him because she says his spermatozoon count is low. She has Gooch, her old boyfriend she did not remained faithful to during his three years in prison, sleep with her in order to get pregnant while the boys are spending the night with her husband they initiate to some kind of Indian name-giving ritual that is in fact some kind of practical joke from them but he plays the game through and in the night he loses his glasses, hence he cannot see very well what is happening: he is being played the Mickey out of him while his wife is getting impregnated by her ex- boyfriend.
And they say this is the voice of the future. I mean that future does not seem to be very sunny and bright.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU