Review of Smoke Signals (1998) by Paul T — 16 Apr 2009

I have always believed that the most important element in a movie is its characters. It seems like all the great classics of American cinema have very vibrant and interesting characters that jump off the screen and remain in our consciousness long after the credits have finished. But what most people do not realize is that even in what would be a lousy movie, great characters that deliver well-written lines of dialogue with wit and style can often save a movie with a mediocre plot and make it worthwhile. Characters mean everything in movies and that is why I think Sherman Alexieâ??s Smoke Signals is successful. The story centers around Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, two young Native American men who travel cross-country from Coeur dâ??Alene Reservation to Arizona to obtain the ashes of Victorâ??s recently deceased father. Smoke Signals contains not one, but several colorful characters that steal the show and make the movie highly entertaining as well as meaningful.

Smoke Signals vibrates with many interesting characters with Victor Joseph being one of the most important. In a flashback scene we see Victorâ??s father Arnold storm out of their house one day when Victor was a young boy and never return. As a result Victor grows up to somewhat cynical but also a handsome young man. He rarely smiles and is very impatient with his friend Thomas Builds-the-Fire, while still being plagued with his childhood and only the faint memories of his father. I think that Victorâ??s most important moment occurs on the bus to Arizona when Victor meets Cathy the gymnast who is still bitter about the boycott of the 1980 Olympics in which she was an alternate on the gymnastics team. But Victor hurts her feelings when he says that because she was an alternate on the 1980 Olympic team and not a starter she never would have gotten to participate in the Olympics anyway. Victor says that Cathy has nothing to complain about and ought to just shut up. Victor then goes on to tell Thomas that Cathy was a liar and that no Olympian would ever be traveling by bus. I find Victorâ??s comments particularly interesting because of the distrust that he seems to have for white people. Maybe it is a reflection of his life in the reservation or maybe in the lack of a father figure that he had growing up, but Victor obviously has an inferiority complex against whites and views them as liars and not trustworthy. I think that this scene reflects our culture and the distrust that some people have for other races just because of their skin color and not the content of their character. I think that Victor feels cheated from his childhood with the divorce of his parents and has developed a certain self-centeredness. Even when someone else feels resentful about her past, Victor feels the need to hurt Cathyâ??s outlook because it lets him get rid of some of his own anger.

Another interesting character is Thomas Builds-the-Fire whose parents died in a house fire at a very young age. Thomas is very much the opposite of Victor. While Victor is developed as a very large man with chiseled good looks, Thomas is described as a frail Indian nerd with glasses and an annoying personality. But while both Thomas and Victor experienced tragedies with their parents at a young age, Thomas has learned to take on a more happy-go-lucky outlook on life and does a better job of enjoying himself. Thomas is also without question the funniest character in the movie. He never stops talking which would normally make him irritating, but Thomasâ??s humor turns his character from being annoying to being hilarious. The stories that he talks about are so quirky and fun to listen to. It felt like Thomas was the comic relief of Smoke Signals that would lighten the mood of the movie if it was getting too serious in its tone about death or the memory of the fire in the beginning. One example of Thomasâ??s humor is when Thomas starts randomly singing about John Wayneâ??s teeth in an Indian chant on the bus. I found this to be one of the funniest parts of the movie because it reminded me of some of the random things that I might talk about with my friends. Iâ??ve had conversations about things that I bet no one else in the history of the world has talked about. That is why singing an Indian chant about nothing was funny: because it really is the way some people talk.

Another interesting character is Suzie Song, but as screenplay writer Sherman Alexie agrees, she didnâ??t translate as well from screenplay to film as some of the others. Irene Bedard gives a very good performance as Suzie, but her character remains flawed due to her most important moment of the screenplay cut from the final film. In scene 75 Suzie delivers her most important line when she says, â??I was cold,â?? in response to Arnold Josephâ??s question about why she decided to come to Phoenix (Alexie 79). It was such an important line because it explained a lot about the loneliness of her character as well as gave Suzie a little bit of back story. But this particular line of dialogue was not delivered in the way that Alexie intended and as a result it was scrapped from the film (Alexie 163). But besides that particular moment, Suzie Song is just the way a reader of the screenplay would imagine. Suzie is a very compassionate person which can be seen in her affection for her dog and for helping Arnold when no one else would. Suzie is the kind of friend that we all wish we had. She is so thoughtful and even takes the initiative to properly care for the deceased Arnold, a man she only knew for a brief period of time.

Arnold Joseph is the final main character of Smoke Signals and perhaps the deepest. In a flashback scene towards the beginning of the movie we see a drunk Arnold storm out of his house and leave his son and wife behind forever. This was an especially heartbreaking moment for me as a viewer because I could only imagine how sad I would feel if one of my parents just picked up and left. This unfortunately is not uncommon in the Native American community for a parent to leave and never come back which makes it a large cultural statement. We also find out near the end of the movie that it was Arnold that accidentally started the fire in the beginning that killed Thomasâ??s parents. Arnold redeems himself shortly after when he saves baby Thomas who was thrown out the window. When we learn that Arnold started the fire it goes a long way in explaining Arnoldâ??s leaving his family later on. These two moments make Arnold out to be the tragic character of Smoke Signals. He is beset by his former mistakes and seems to never forgive himself for starting the fire or for leaving his family. In what seems like an act of redemption, Arnold develops a friendship with the much younger Suzie Song whom he treats like a daughter. Suzie readily accepts Arnold friendship due to the unexplained loss of her parents. In this relationship Arnold shows that he is not just a selfish person, but rather someone who is regretful of the way he treated his family. My initial reaction to Arnold was one of disdain, but as Suzie gets to know Arnold, we as an audience get to know him and become more sympathetic to his character. By the end of the movie I began to feel a lot of sympathy for Arnold. He was not a bad person, just someone who made some bad decisions that he regretted and later made up for. Once Victor finally forgives his father at the end of the movie the audience pardons Arnold as well.

I truly believe that the characters in Smoke Signals are what made the movie good. The plot of the movie made for a road comedy that did not seem very original or entertaining by itself. The dialogue was good, but the manner in which the characterâ??s delivered the lines made the dialogue seem better than it really was. The four main characters in Victor, Thomas, Suzie, and Arnold had a certain sincerity that made them vibrant but at the same time believable. It seems like anyone of these colorful characters could exist in the real world and that is what makes Smoke Signals valuable. Had Alexie written cardboard-cutout characters that were poorly acted and nothing more than stereotypical Native Americans, then Smoke Signals would never have been worth a watch. Fortunately Smoke Signals are as good as any characters I have seen at the movies in a long time.