Smoke Signals: I think it's a fine example of the oral tradition.

June 26, 2018 7:42 AM

Twenty years ago today, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire first traveled from their homes [trailer] on the Coeur D'Alene Indian Reservation in Plummer, Idaho, down to Phoenix, Arizona. This journey was adapted from the stories in Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, particularly "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" [PDF with questions for discussion]. The movie was unique, as an all-Native American production: producers, director, screenwriter, actors and technicians. What Smoke Signals means 20 years later by Ellen C. Caldwell, who notes that "the film is constantly playing with dismantling and challenging dominant Native stereotypes."

For more consideration of the film, here's John Wayne's Teeth: Speech, Sound and Representation in Smoke Signals and Imagining Indians by Joanna Hearne [PDF from Archive.org], and “John Wayne’s Teeth” Grinds Up Eurocentrism in a Brotherhood Movie by Monica Reiser, a shorter evaluation.

If you want to compare the short stories with the film, there's a blog for that -- and it also takes into account Smoke Signals - The Screenplay [book review from another site, The Old Shelter] -- "snappy and thoughtful like the film, you find in here a few things that were edited from the movie and that makes the story more complete." For a direct comparison, here's the movie transcript.

Here are a few quotes on IMDb, and more quotes from Great-Quotes.com (page 2, though Great Quotes has a number of duplicates.

And here are movie clips: The Oral Tradition | Don't Go, Dad! | How to Be a Real Indian | Warrior Luck / John Wayne's Teeth | Broke Some Hearts | You Gotta Have Faith | He's Waiting For You | Exploring the Trailer | Everything Burned Up! | Running for Help | That's My Father | To Forgive Our Fathers

That final link is Thomas reciting "How Do We Forgive Our Fathers" by Dick Lourie, a modification of "Forgiving Our Fathers".

Years after the movie was released, the two stars had gone in drastically different directions: Evan Adams (Thomas Builds-the-Fire) became a medical doctor, and in 2014, Dr. Adams was named Chief Medical Officer by the First Nations Health Authority in Canada. The year prior, he talked about Wellness, two-eyed seeing and system change at TEDxPowellRiver [YT], starting with his acting and transitioning to his medical career. More recently, Adams talked about his memories of the film, including that each morning he prayed that he would be able to capture and portray the “beautiful Elder who would die for you” that his character.

On the other hand, you have Adam Beach (Victor Joseph), who who went from Smoke Signals to Hollywood Stardom [2002 interview with First Nation Drums], where he talked about his childhood and his future goals. In 2007, he talked on NPR about his long road to stardom, where he talked about using acting as a way of running from his pain and anger, until he landed his role in Smoke Signals, where his character related to his personal story.

Director Chris Eyre compared Smoke Signals to his next film, Skins [trailer; Wikipedia], saying

One of the marks of being Indian is always the ability to make light of your situation because there is an alliance in that. There is an alliance in always being able to laugh at just your circumstance and situation. That was the same way with Smoke Signals. I think that [Skins] goes a step further because… Smoke Signals was a charming movie to me. This movie I would say is a powerful movie. It’s a real movie. Maybe it’s not the Indians that people want to see, but these are Indians that are real to me.

He has since gone on to direct more films and TV episodes, generally telling stories with strong Indian/ Native American/ First Nation perspectives.

Earlier this year, Sherman Alexie confirmed that he has "done things that have harmed other people" [PDF], but denied claims by author Litsa Dremousis and made his own claims against her, which she denied. She had directed other women to contact NPR; 10 women did and spoke about Alexie, where a clear pattern of sexual harassment emerged.

Parting clip: Arlene's Magical Frybread

posted by filthy light thief (20 comments total)

I saw it in the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe when it came out, and I was one of two white people in the theater.

So we didn't get all the Native inside jokes, but we knew where they were.
posted by ocschwar at 7:51 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Hey, Victor.
posted by No Robots at 7:56 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Both my kids saw Smoke Signals in High School and raved about it. My wife and I picked up the DVD a few years later and enjoyed it immensely. (We now often reference the Denny's line "two eggs, two pancakes...").

Years later we were all in California visiting family and an older cousin was talking about flying in and out of the LA area; she preferred using John Wayne airport, mostly for the size but also because it reminded her of this one movie she saw that had a song about his teeth ... we all looked at each other and burst into the song. She just about fell out of her chair laughing, because she had never met anyone else catch the reference, much less having seen Smoke Signals.
posted by jazon at 8:09 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Hey Victor supercut.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:21 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Oh, I love "Smoke Signals". I also love "Skins", although it is, as Eyre points out, less charming and funny.

Thanks so much for this post.
posted by allthinky at 8:34 AM on June 26, 2018

I was super excited to notice Irene Bedard in Westworld this season.
posted by cazoo at 8:43 AM on June 26, 2018 [1 favorite]

Winnipeg born Adam Beach was honoured with a great mural in the 'Peg.
posted by Ashwagandha at 8:56 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

Oh and don't forget Ohsweken born Gary Farmer (who played Arnold Joseph in Smoke Signals) another great Aboriginal actor with a long list of credits.
posted by Ashwagandha at 9:11 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

I saw rhi film at hee DuPont circle theatre and me and the friend were the only people who got the
Fry-bread jokes
posted by rtha at 9:41 AM on June 26, 2018

Sherman Alexie is an extremely divisive topic on Native twitter, in part because his pattern of sexual harassment seems to have largely targeted Native women.

Some writing after the sexual harassment news:

A new Native literary world without Sherman Alexie
Targeting tokenism one way to fill the gap left by author Sherman Alexie
11 new books by Native women you need to have in your life

I'd especially like to recommend Rebecca Roanhorse, who just won the Nebula for her story “Welcome to Your Authentic Indian Experience™”, and whose novel Trail of Lightning, which is sort of like a Native version of Mad Max, just was released.
posted by maxsparber at 9:52 AM on June 26, 2018 [18 favorites]

I really enjoyed Smoke Signals the movie, but when I first read the title of this thread, I was really hoping it was going to be about the grammar and vocabulary of literal smoke signals as used by Native Americans for long distance communication. Were smoke signals just binary communication or was the smoke shaped in some way? Were they more like one if by land, two if by sea or more like Morse code?
posted by mumblelard at 10:24 AM on June 26, 2018

Tribes used different smoke signals for different purposes, and many didn't use them at all, so I don't think there is one answer to your question.
posted by maxsparber at 10:37 AM on June 26, 2018 [3 favorites]

11 new books by Native women you need to have in your life

May I also humbly recommend Eden Robinson and her books Monkey Beach and Son of a Trickster?

The latter is the first of a planned trilogy, which I'm pretty excited about. The next book, Trickster Drift, is due out in October.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 10:57 AM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

So we didn't get all the Native inside jokes, but we knew where they were.

I seriously came into this thread in the hopes that someone would explain why the car that only drives backwards is so funny, a question that has weighed on my mind since 2002.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 2:52 PM on June 26, 2018

Growing up in Oakland, the car that only drives backwards intuitively rhymed with lots of hoopty, DIY, make it work solutions to poverty and lack of resources I've seen around. I mean, I'm not sure I can say why it was funny, only that it seemed self evidently real, in a goofy, we make the best of things way.
posted by latkes at 3:12 PM on June 26, 2018 [2 favorites]

Was blessed to be living in Taos when they premiered Smoke Signals there. Cast & Alexie on stage afterwards.
Laughing and crying at the momentuous of it all.
posted by Mesaverdian at 3:28 PM on June 26, 2018

I seriously came into this thread in the hopes that someone would explain why the car that only drives backwards is so funny, a question that has weighed on my mind since 2002.

On larger reservations, you'll find people driving cars that are in such condition that they cannot possibly be taken off rez without being instantly impounded. You'll notice in that scene that the women drive that car to the edge of the rez and then turn around.

You'll also find that some tribes get really really loyal to Honda or Toyota because of how cannibalizable those cars can be.
posted by ocschwar at 8:05 AM on June 27, 2018 [5 favorites]

Driving in my Indian Car

ALso came out in 1998 or so
posted by ocschwar at 8:08 AM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Great movie, and fantastic post. Thanks.

To forgive our fathers is a moving poem.
posted by HuronBob at 5:02 PM on June 27, 2018

I prefer the original version of John Wayne's Teeth. (Also check out the Mighty Mouse song.)
posted by zaelic at 10:22 PM on June 27, 2018 [1 favorite]