Skins

Skins
by Chris Eyre

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DVD Reviews of Skins

DVD Review: Brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars

"Skins" focuses on two brothers living on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, just down the road from Mount Rushmore. Pine Ridge is the poorest county in the United States, rife with chronic alcoholism, high infant mortality rates, sky-high unemployment, and low life expectancies. It's a rough place to live and raise a family, a fact Pine Ridge police officer Rudy Yellow Lodge learns anew everyday as he deals with murders, assaults, rapes, and other alcohol and poverty induced rampages. When he isn't fulfilling his duties, he's attempting to deal with his alcoholic older brother Mogie, a Vietnam veteran who always likes to stir up some trouble on the reservation. But Rudy has more problems than putting up with his brother. The police officer is sick to his soul about the abhorrent conditions on the reservation, and one day he decides to do something about it. What Yellow Lodge does is perhaps a series of small gestures, merely a drop of remedy in an ocean of social sickness, but he feels it is good for his sanity and good for his people.

What Rudy does is turn vigilante. The idea comes to him after he falls and hits his head on a rock while pursuing a fugitive in a murder case. From this point forward, Yellow Lodge wreaks havoc on Lakotas who assault their fellow Lakotas. He beats two youths with a baseball bat, breaking their knees in the process, after he learns about their involvement in a heinous crime. A bigger mission concerns the liquor stores in Whiteclay, Nebraska. Since alcohol sales on the reservation are a big no-no, Indians drive down to Whiteclay to buy their poison. Yellow Lodge rapidly tires of seeing his people buy booze at the stores, so he decides to torch one of the businesses in the middle of the night. Like I said, it's a small gesture that won't mean much in the long run (other stores will open for business in the morning as sure as the sun rises), but taking an extreme action makes Rudy feel good about himself. After all, he's a cop sworn "to serve and protect" his people, and what better way to fulfill this promise than to strike a blow against the individuals who make his people's lives miserable. There's a problem with Rudy's willful actions, though. For one thing, they don't entirely embody Lakota virtues. Also, even the best actions have a tendency to hurt the ones we love, and the results of the fire at the liquor store nearly destroy Rudy Yellow Lodge's life.

The performances in "Skins" are excellent. Director Chris Eyre assembled a largely Indian cast for his film, and they all do a good job. Eric Schweig works wonders as the emotionally conflicted Rudy Yellow Lodge. He's so riveting to watch that you immediately feel an empathy with his character even when the guy does some bad things. For the role of Mogie, Eyre cast none other than Graham Greene. A character that is a raging alcoholic with a serious authority problem might not be the easiest role to pull off, but Greene does it with an effortlessness that is startling to watch. Both of these characters move against the backdrop of a reservation clogged with run down houses and shacks, rutted roads, and broken lives. If you think everything is doom and gloom in "Skins," however, you're wrong. Eyre injects the film with an enormous amount of humor, which might come as a surprise. Many people don't associate Native Americans with a sense of humor because they've seen old black and white photos of stone faced Indians awkwardly posing for the camera. "Skins" shows that Indians use humor in part to cope with their difficulties.

It is difficult to watch "Skins" and not feel pity for the residents of Pine Ridge, but Eyre is attempting something more with his picture. Instead of trying to get us to feel sorry for the Lakotas, he wants his audience to know about their problems and how Lakotas live their lives in spite of them. I applaud Chris Eyre for gracing us with this amazingly insightful film about a world far too few of us know about. "Skins" is fascinating, funny, thought provoking, and even--surprise--entertaining. Add this one to your rental/buy list posthaste.

Description of Skins