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Analysis of Themes and Symbols in the Movie "Smoke Signals"

“Some children aren't really children at all, they are just pillar of flame that burn everything they touch. Some children who are just pillars of ash that fall apart if you touch them.”

Smoke Signals: film analysis

• Alexie, S. (1993). The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Grove Press.
• Alexie, S. (1998). Smoke Signals. Miramax Films.
• Coates, T. (2015). Between the World and Me. Spiegel & Grau.
• Crisp, J. (2000). Smoke Signals: A Metaphor for Native-American Survival. Journal of Popular Culture, 34(1), 1-14.
• Deloria, V., & Lytle, C. (2012). American Indians in American History. University Press of Colorado.

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Character Analysis of Smoke Signals

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Published: Mar 14, 2024

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“Smoke Signals” by Chris Eyre Essay

Introduction, the relationships between characters, unexpected moment, the quality of filming, film’s title symbolism, the plot of the film, works cited.

• Title: Smoke Signals
• Director: Chris Eyre
• Year of Release: 1998
• Director of Photography/Cinematographer: Brian Capener
• Editor: Brian Berdan
• Cast: Adam Beach – Victor Joseph, Evan Adams – Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Irene Bedard – Suzy Song, Gary Farmer Arnold Joseph.

“Though this is very much the first feature…, ”Smoke Signals” shows colorful style and a wisdom beyond precocity about its setting and its people” – the film got the following remarks from the New York Times journalist Janet Maslin (Maslin). There is no doubt that the film is highly emotional, explores not only ethnic problems and discrepancies the two young men face in their pursuit of knowledge but the issues of identity, self-understanding, and coordination of the truth of life with everything they knew before.

Chris Eyre showed himself as a skillful creator of the genuinely Native American story seen with the eyes of two young guys traveling in the search of the remains of their father, who face the country they have never seen before but which they, nevertheless, want to get familiar with. In some points, the film shows their humoristic naivety, but in general, the film is highly depictive both from the point of view of purely individualistic traits and relations and the nationwide scope of the Native American perception. The director was trying to break the long-existing stereotypes about violent Native Americans incarcerated in their reservations and living according to their sacred, mysterious canons that do not fit in the commonly accepted social life – he depicted the two ordinary young men in the turning point of their life.

Their interrelations are very expressive from the point of view of their origin, with Victor being the native son of his father, and Thomas is an ‘adopted’ child, the saved boy whom Victor’s father rescued in his childhood. They both love their father, but only Thomas knows his real inner self: it was Thomas who lived under one roof with his father for his whole life and suffered violence and humiliation, alcoholism, and the unexpectedness of his father (Smoke Signals). However, both guys as people deeply attached to their roots love their father dearly, which initiates their journey from the reservation to Phoenix, to get their father back home. The story of their trip is becoming much more complex and heterogeneous as the differences between Victor and Thomas are revealed in the course of the narrative:

The boys have been rivals and opposites ever since. Victor is the bigger and sterner of the two, with Thomas as his screwball sidekick. It is Victor, for instance, who accuses Thomas of having gotten his ideas of Indian behavior from too many viewings of ”Dances With Wolves” and advises him to quit grinning, start scowling and toughen up (Maslin).

The end of the film brings about an unexpected turning point for both Arnold’s sons, especially for Thomas – the boy who loved Arnold all his life for being saved from the fire finds out that Arnold was the initial cause of the fire that brought death for his parents. The realization of the truth makes both characters look at their life and their relations in another way, making them closer than ever before. All their life was a rivalry full of jealousy towards one another – the tough, harsh Victor did not accept Thomas as a part of his life and his family. The newly discovered facts make them both look at their lives from another angle and reconsider everything that happened to them, making them close as never before.

Looking at the plot more thoroughly, it becomes clear that the film combines many ethic elements that signify the Native American culture and show the patterns of Native American ethnicity very explicitly and at times even unexpectedly for a regular American or Canadian viewer. The issues of self-identification in a narrow, family sense and in a broader sense of belonging to a certain culture collide in the course of the narrative, revealing the conflicts belaying the whole narrative.

Smoke Signals is alight with oddball nuances and wry observations: the reservation’s radio station, KREZ, uses a broken-down van at the deserted crossroads to gauge the (nonexistent) traffic conditions, and Victor’s mother Arlene (Cardinal) is a master in the fine art of flatbread-making. Subtle, lyrically haunting touches like these evoke a palpable sense of loss and the sub-poverty level of Native American life, but also unite the tribe – broken by alcohol and abuse though they may be – in long-held beliefs and rituals (Savlov).

The technical part of the film is performed with stunning proficiency – the shots are skillfully made producing the deep emotional effect and including many implications that are not voiced in dialogues but are meant by the silent scenes and actions of the heroes. Mise en scene represents the USA in the 1990s with the stereotypical perception of Native Americans by the society: the attitude to them by people they meet and interact with. The costumes of the main characters also speak for themselves – they are dressed up as real Indians, in plain and comfortable clothes, and are remarkable in the common society. Political and social conflict is fully revealed by the distorted perception of the guys by other people who were raised on pervert stereotypes and ignorance.

The title of the film is speaking for itself in several ways – “Smoke Signals” are highly symbolic in the respect of the meaning of the concept for both heroes. The first meaning that may be attached to the title is the shadow of the past represented by the fire in which parents of Thomas died and made him a part of the family of Arnold and Victor. On the other hand, these both guys symbolize smoke signals that they send to the rest of the community, eager to become a part of it but being rejected.

The topic that is traced in the film, which is the Native American ethnicity, stereotyping, and perception of Native Americans may be followed in some other films of the genre that are worth mentioning in the present work as well. For example, such films as “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and “Little Big Man” also represent the way a stereotypical depiction of Native American people may be viewed from both sides of the barricade – from the side of the regular community and the side of the indigenous groups of the society as well.

The main juxtaposition of the plot is the peculiarity of world perception by both characters – Victor and Thomas. They were living in one reservation, Thomas being an orphan but still managing to retain a romanticized and mild perception of the contemporary reality, not seeing the cruelty and complexity of life Victor came across experiencing the violence of his father, Arnold.

The characters are harshly juxtaposed with one another, unwillingly united by one aim in one trip, evolving into friends and simply understanding people in the course of the film. Thomas teaches Victor to face the horrors of the past, put up with them and let them not prevent him from leading a full life in the present and future. From his side, Victor helps Thomas put up with the newly discovered truth and adjust to real life in a world full of incongruence, suffering, and trouble. They become a natural mix of different people helping each other evolve into something better, consequently creating a much stronger family unit than they could have ever supposed.

Little Big Man. Cinema Center Films, 1970.

Maslin, Janet. “Smoke Signals (1998). FILM FESTIVAL REVIEW; Miles to Go, and Worlds Apart”. New York Times . Web.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. United Artists Warner Home Video, 1975.

Savlov, Mark. “Smoke Signals”. The Austin Chronicle, 1998. Web.

Smoke Signals. Miramax Films, 1998.

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IvyPanda. (2021, November 14). “Smoke Signals” by Chris Eyre. https://ivypanda.com/essays/smoke-signals-by-chris-eyre/

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Smoke signals are one of the oldest forms of long-distance communication. They are used to communicate news and danger, or to gather people in a common area. These signals are often associated with Native American cultures. Learn about the significance of smoke signals and the different types. We ll also...

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Smoke Signal Film Analysis - Essay Example

• Subject: Visual Arts & Film Studies
• Type: Essay
• Level: Undergraduate
• Pages: 4 (1000 words)
• Downloads: 2
• Author: ukassulke

Extract of sample "Smoke Signal Film Analysis"

The existence if this film completed the conception of Indians churning out their own stories a reality. Even so, will self-depiction by Native Americans within Hollywood finally, eventually take place again? American Indians inhabit a controversial position in the Hollywood thoughts. They would seemingly appear to be an element of America’s unusual myth. This falsehood glaringly seems to be overtly determined to twirl into realism. The last decade has observed more Indian themed movies launched with the participation of bona fide Indian actors than ever before.

Additionally, whether modern Indian Smoke Signals is an outstanding incident still is debatable. However, time will only tell whether actors of Native American origins will eventually, absolutely, be granted the starring responsibilities to which they rightfully deserve. In the film Smoke Signal, Native Americans were classified into an assortment of the noble savage, the atrocious warrior, the faithful assistant, amid other subversive names (Morgan, 2010). It is evident that Native Americans stand in for a very minimal margin of the American population.

The only way they are represented according to solid evidence is though the medium that is the media. The media such as television and movies have a certain primacy with which they represent this minority group of Native Americans. A major exit from the classic action against the Native Americans, Smoke Signal is a superficially human anecdote, superfluous with dissident political commentary (Morgan, 2010). The issue of Alcoholism in the film is brought out by Victor’s father who is an erratic alcoholic.

Victor’s father in this scenario depicts parental desertion and alcoholism. Here, the movie sends up Indian cynics, who struggle with dysfunctions. Even more, Smoke Signals gallops on not present fathers and wondering fathers. As a clever way of settling his late father’s affairs, Victor goes down to Arizona and comes back with his ashes. Victor is depicted as very bitter at his father’s drinking and desertion. While in Arizona Victor realizes some truths about his father. In this context, Smoke Signals stresses the importance for bringing together between father and son.

This movie, as a result, depicts Indians as down-and-out drunks, unseemly addicted to alcohol as they are to the unpleasantness at their batch in life. This film depends heavily on human correlation and salvation. Struggling with the crippling grief, Victor’s father takes to alcoholism and violence as way of escapisms from the challenges facing him. When he dies, Victor is put to the task of inheriting his father’s estate. But the crippling financial challenges combating his family do not allow him to travel to Arizona.

But his friend bails him out his financial crisis by providing him with the money required to travel to Arizona. This point depicts that Native American were always looking after each other, incase of dire hardships (Morgan, 2010). Victor’s father abandonment is seen not as decision, but as something he was meant to do. In order to escape from guilt, Victor’s father then resorts to alcoholism. However, the abandonment of Victor’s father is much less important than his own acceptance of it.

This is because Victor has is left no option but to continue with his daily existence. Conversely, the Indian reservation is cast in a fashion as if it existed in a time line where progress is

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