Why You Should Watch Smoke Signals (1998)

Here's a video for a movie I'd bet many of you haven't heard and I'd also bet you would enjoy. Let us know what you think!

[SamThaManEscamilla]

In the native American way when you cut your hair your mourning for your loved ones

[pattymelt]

I think a big message in this movie is so subtle, maybe it was not intended. Thomas was Victor's very best friend, even though Victor viewed him as a pest.
At first Thomas did it out of jealousy, I think, because Arnold was his hero. But he saw that when he mentioned Victor's father to him, he would release his anger, so Thomas served as a personal outlet.
When he finally understood his father's pain he could see him as Thomas did.
Victor tried to coach Thomas how to be native, but Thomas taught Victor how to be himself.
It is a beautiful movie. It is an honest story; nothing slick about it. The cast really makes you want to know these people they are playing.

I love the cadence in his voice when Evan Adams tells the stories.

[EmilyKresl]

I love this movie and my mom and I reference it alot since 1998, I just rewatched it again after trying to get a friend who is dealing with drinking and issues with his dad as a child to help him. It really turned his perspective around and showed him it's ok to be angry but it's also ok to just let go and move on. We've all had hard childhoods once you really sit down and talk to people openly, I think it helps to find a spiritual angle too especially when you avoid Christianity and structured religion. Thank you for posting! ❤️❤️❤️

[calvinwhitewolfjr]

It amazes me how many native Americans go on different paths in this movie. As for me I was adopted off The Rez and seeing a perspective. All the metrics have change .Thank you

[eroughydue]

One of the best movies I have ever seen. There isn't a more authentic movie in my opinion.

[andylindsey]

I watched this movie a few years back. I definitely recommend it. It was pretty good. The ending though, my gosh, it was AMAZING! One of the best speeches I've heard in any movie and a powerful ending. This is why I love movies, you have that one poignant moment that takes your breath away. This movie did that with the ending. The whole movie leads up to it. It's great.

[kchuntinghawk]

I watched this movie when it came out and I'm from where Adam beach is from Winnipeg

[gilbertsatchell]

This is magic. I have give it away as gifts so people can learn, to study it, to see themselves. This and "Pow-Wow Highway are tied together with Gary Farmer who is one of the finest actors ever. He is alive when he acts, he doesn't act he is that person and you feel it, know it. During the movie Thomas's stories are a delight and teach us many things about ourselves. Get both movies and study them. It's like going to class on the first day at a real school where you learn how to be a human. Then give them to someone that need to see.

[lynejlamb]

I LOVED this movie when I saw it, and my grown son & I are going to watch it later today.

[art]

Very good movie. Not enough recognition. Saw it several years after it's original release.

[carlton]

Thanks friend for thus fine write-up about the movie, SMOKE SIGNALS; 1998.
It resonates quite strongly in myself as well.
Emotions are dealt with in a way that is healing.
I had sought this and this film helps very much.
I was lucky to have found it when exploring independant movies.
I was very much impressed at it's affirmative values, sense of humor and lightness, and it's ultimate forgiveness stated as a beautiful open-ended question answerable for each person ..
Shall we forgive our fathers for being too forceful or for not being forceful enough...?
Interactive is the word that comes to my mind as being the result of putting what is the main point of the movie in this question form.Each individual will summon their own questions and answer for themself.And I believe that is so usefully effective and physically so deeply healing.
So, yea, I love this movie and likewise recommend it from the very bottom of my heart !!!

[TheDondajonhon]

Wonderful review! This is a beautiful, important film.

[WildwoodClaire]

This is easily my favorite movie about Indians. It is so much richer and nuanced than typical Hollywood kitsch, which indulges in relentless "red-washing" (see Dances with Wolves, Little Big Man, and The Revenant for examples). By "red-washing, " I mean reduction of myriad Indian cultures, traditions, and languages to a generic, innately peaceful, "at-one-with-nature" stereotype adored by suburban white, plastic liberals, who would be horrified by and reject ANY depiction of Indians as complex human beings capable of rapacity, hubris, cruelty, and every other human failing, just like the rest of us.

[ADAM_NORMAN_AND_MELODY]

I was obsessed with watching this movie during high schiool life way back in 2001.... I think that the movie kind of portrays actual Native American life within The Reservation.... I can relate to the movie, by the way, on its subject matter/s.... And, I am good friends with that woman actress within this movie.... I met her at a Native American pow-wow sometime during this movie was being made and we became good friends since then....

As for the whole father-thing message at the end.... It is a great message that people like myself should hear, especially teenage boys.... Well, yeah, my father was similar to the father that left his family within the film.... We were father and son back in the 1980s.... He was my best friend, too.... When he left in 1987 over drinking and abusing his family and whatnot, my father just left us without any warning.... We never saw him again alive.... The next time that I saw him was at his funeral in 1994.... I will never forgot that day, even if I tried.... It was weird.... I woke up to my dad's favourite song playing on the radio called Hooked On You by The Covergirls.... An hour later my mother got a call saying my father was in a coma and expected to die soon from an overdose of medication that a nurse had done....

[Dionysos]

Great movie, Thanks. You know it's tough when you have to BACK your car across the prairie

[nativeandindigenuscraftcre]

Hi thanks for sharing your thoughts about smoke singles and it good it shows real people no joke that how i feel about it i like actors that acts there cartorter they are real indigenous person acts that what i like about thanks again

[EmilyKresl]

Check out skins and the movie dreamkeeper

[elliecherise]

More than anything he hated his father for taking off and abandoning him and the movie is about him trying to come to terms with his relationship with his father. Like when he was talking to the young girl who told him his father seemed like a nice guy and he said "you didn't know my father" or the jackass that ran off on me so don't try to sugarcoat his personality and how he talked great about Victor to make Victor feel better because that's overriding how Victor felt about his own father. She was trying to be nice, but it doesn't work that way.
The poem isn't native, but it's the best delivery especially at the end with the NA song.
It's not about forgiving or not forgiving your father because that relationship is too complex and never fully resolved with some perfect answer or perfect solution. If you forgive your father everything will be right as rain and nice and pretty again.

[FabledHeroes]

I would if I could find the full movie online can anyone help me out with that?

[EricGray-zres]

Get stoic. "But our tribe never hunted buffalo. We were fishermen!" 😅