Smoke Signals

Smoke Signals
by Chris Eyre

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DVD details

Actor: Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Gary Farmer, Irene Bedard, Tantoo Cardinal
Director: Chris Eyre
Producer: Chris Eyre
Producer: Brent Morris
Producer: Carl Bressler
Producer: David Skinner
Producer: Larry Estes
Producer: Randy Suhr
Writer: Sherman Alexie
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: Letterbox, 1.85:1
Running Time: 89 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-09-28
Studio: Miramax Films

DVD Reviews of Smoke Signals

DVD Review: satisfied customer
Summary: 5 Stars

I had loaned out the vhs copy that my wife had bought me, and I needed another copy to use at work. The movie is great, and offers a fair depiction of what I remember from growing up on a reservation. The video showed up quickly, which seems to be faster when ordering from Amazon, rather than from the other vendor options.

DVD Review: Great Indian Story
Summary: 5 Stars

I really enjoyed this movie. It gives the viewer a inside look at the Indian way of life along with their storytelling that is not to be written down, but is to be spoken. The two main characters, Victor and Thomas are friends even though they are at total ends of the spectrum. Thomas being the easy going, braided, lovable goof,pulls people to him through his storytelling,while Victor the handsome, serious minded one has no time for Thomas's stories and believes that it is all just a waste of time, is trying to be strong and have confidence in the wake of his alcholic fathers desertion of him and his mother. This movie is very enjoyable and deserves a look.

DVD Review: Funny and smart
Summary: 5 Stars

The movie is not as thorough as the book on which it's based, but it preserves the novel's sense of humor as well as the honest depictions of human relationships that make the novel engaging and memorable. As a teacher, I can say the 89-minutes film is perfect for viewing in the classroom. I highly recommend the movie, but it's not a shortcut to reading The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

DVD Review: A true take on native peoples
Summary: 5 Stars

I teach high school and often use this movie for students to understand some of the issues of native peoples. Its accuracy on gritty issues like alcoholism, high school drop-outs, absent fathers and early death is astonishing. But what brings me back is the hope in the power of the tale, the story, to both keep a history alive and to embellish it into the dream all their lives could be. These characters are not types, but flesh and blood native folks trying to navigate their own, as well as the white man's, highways. Lots of laughs and some tears, just like real life. Stunning in its poignant handling of a reality of which too many non-native peoples are simply ignorant.

DVD Review: in perfect condition!
Summary: 5 Stars

the movie was delivered in the condition that was described on the webpage, and in good timing.

Description of Smoke Signals

Critically acclaimed as one of the best films of the year, SMOKE SIGNALS was also a distinguished winner at the Sundance Film Festival! Though Victor and Thomas have lived their entire young lives in the same tiny town, they couldn't have less in common! But when Victor is urgently called away, it's Thomas who comes up with the money to pay for his trip. There's just one thing Victor has to do: take Thomas along for the ride! You're in for a rare and entertaining comic treat as this most unlikely pair leave home on what becomes an unexpectedly unforgettable adventure of friendship and discovery!

Based on a couple of short stories (from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven) by Sherman Alexie, Smoke Signals is a lean and assured feature that speaks well of its lengthy, rich evolution, including a development stint at Sundance. The first feature made by a Native American crew and creative team, the film concerns two young Idaho men with radically different memories of one Arnold Joseph (Gary Farmer), a former resident of the reservation who split years before and has just died in Phoenix. Arnold's strapping, popular son, Victor (Adam Beach), remembers him best as an alcoholic, occasionally abusive father who drove off one day and never came back. By contrast, Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams), whom Arnold had saved from certain death years earlier, has chosen to exaggerate the man's life and deeds in a mythmaking fashion that drives Victor crazy. Circumstances bring the two together, however, in a bus ride to retrieve Arnold's ashes. There, in Phoenix, a confrontation with the reality of the dead man's fullest legacy has a profound effect on both characters. Alexie, who wrote the script and was personally involved in all aspects of the production, and first-time director Chris Eyre are so polished in their approach that you can barely feel the cinematic engine at work here. This is the kind of movie in which the characters seem to be driving everything forward, a captivating and pleasant experience that gets a little too tidy at the end (can we call a moratorium on scenes of human ashes lovingly disposed to the winds?), but which is undeniably moving. The cast, including Irene Bedard (the voice of and physical inspiration for Disney's Pocahontas) is outstanding. --Tom Keogh

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