Monday Afternoon @ the Movies: In honor of Native American Heritage Month: Smoke Signals (1998)

In honor of Native American Heritage Month: Smoke Signals (1998) Chris Eyre’s coming of age film, based on Sherman Alexie’s 1993 short story collection The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven: Arnold (Gary Farmer) rescued Thomas (Evan Adams) from a fire when he was a child. Thomas thinks of Arnold as a hero, while Arnold’s son Victor (Adam Beach) resents his father’s alcoholism, violence and abandonment of his family. Uneasy rivals and friends, Thomas and Victor spend their days killing time on a Coeur d’Alene reservation in Idaho and arguing about their cultural identities. When Arnold dies, the duo set out on a cross-country journey to Phoenix to retrieve Arnold’s ashes.  Smoke Signals is the first movie to be written, directed, and co-produced by Native Americans. Rated PG-13: 1 hour 29 minutes.