The movie Smoke Signal is a story that portrays what a Native American really means. It is a movie based on story written by Sherman Alexie.
Thomas is the narrator of the story. It’s just not a simple movie but it has meaning to it, which is the best thing about the movie. It shows the life of Indians and how their life was and what they had to deal with. The movie has two main characters name Victor and Thomas.The movie starts with a house that goes on fire and the man (Arnold Joseph) Victor’s father saves Thomas and Victor from the fire Victor the main character plays the role of a typical Indian who has hatred towards his father for leaving him and his mother when he was little. He doesn’t seem to like his father as he always remembers him tormenting his mother and himself.
In the movie it’s shown how Victor’s father uses his fists on victor when he drops the beer bottle in the truck. His impression towards his father is negative.Where as Thomas seems more emotional and seems to like victor’s father as he keeps telling victor how good man he was and always keeps telling him stories of his father taking him to Denny’s once for breakfast. He seems to be a funny character in the movie by his looks and the way he talks. After Victor hears about his dad’s death he decides to go to Phoenix to get his dad’s remains.
But he don’t have enough money so Thomas offers him help in one condition that he will be allowed to go with him too. This way Thomas helps him with the money for the travel and they head towards phoenix by the bus.One thing I noticed about Victor was the he shows he is tough through out the movie and he has a belief that if he has to get respected by the white people, he has to be serious and be a warrior which he tells Thomas to do too. When they reach to phoenix, the lady named Suzy gives the remains of Victor’s dad and tells him what kind of good man his father was even though at that stage victor still has the same impression he had for his dad which was a liar, an alcoholic and always tormenting him and his mother.After that night, early morning Victor and Thomas leaves Phoenix without letting Suzy know that they are leaving.
On their way back, they get into an accident and there was a lady who needed help in the accident. Victor remembers what Suzy said him about his dad that in the fire that took place when he was a baby, his dad always wanted to help him and he did went back to save his life. This hits on his mind and he decides to get help for the lady. His thoughts about his dad changes. At the end of the movie Victor disperses the remains of his father in the river and forgives him for what he did before.I really like the movie and the story was very different than any other movies.
Sherman’s way of writing the stories seems very unique and could not tell what would happen next in the movie. When Victor knew about his father’s death I was thinking he would not go to Phoenix to get his remains since he had hatred towards him but he decides to go which was surprising. It was always funny how Thomas kept telling stories about different stuffs to Victor even though he knew Victor don’t like to hear them.The author has tried to show the culture of Indians, the thoughts of people, how they dealt their life through his stories which I really found interesting and something different to learn. The author has showed how life was back then and I liked the fact he tried to show what impact it can have to a child’s mind if he sees his father drinking alcohol and tormenting his mother and children.
Like in this movie the behavior of Arnold Joseph, victor’s father has made Victor hate him for what he did to them.In the incident after the car accident when the cops catches them for threating to kill the other man, Victor handles the situation so well proving the officer wrong that he never drank a drop of alcohol in his life and the charges that was put on him was just to get him framed which finally convinces the officer to let them go. At last, the final word “Do we forgive our fathers at our age or theirs” was well said and ended the movie in a good note. A very well thought and well written story. The way the author has presented the characters, their life styles, their feelings , their emotions just makes the movie.
