Wow. If it's not too late, try to go into this one completely blind - no trailers, synopses or reviews. I have never been so drawn in by the hero's tragic flaw than in this movie, and that flaw is casually dropped all over the web. The moment of realization was gut-wrenching. Watched this as part of an Eric Schweig binge and so far it may be his finest performance from the four or five films I've seen. (Graham Greene sort of goes without saying.)

Skins is director Chris Eyre's follow up to the 1997 Native American film Smoke Signals. Like the first film Skins is a comedy drama that has moments, and is a sound film, but could have done a bit more, and often settles into PC preachiness. One would have hoped Eyre would have matured as a filmmaker in the interim. The main character is Rudy Yellow Lodge (Eric Schweig), a reservation cop on the Pine Ridge Reservation for Oglala Sioux in the Black Hills of South Dakota. He is dissatisfied with his job and life, and even more so with his older brother Mogie (Graham Greene), a stereotypical lazy and drunken Indian, who is a source of embarrassment for Rudy. He is also a Vietnam veteran, haunted by that war, and unable to take care of his teenaged son Herby (Noah Watts). After some violence directed against the tribe Rudy snaps and becomes a vigilante, first brutalizing two teenagers responsible for an attack on another boy, and then setting ablaze a local liquor store he blames for the Rez's woes. Unfortunately, Mogie happens to be sleeping off a drinking binge after breaking into the store, and is severely scarred by the fire, which guts into Rudy. While at the hospital for his fire recovery it's discovered that Mogie has a terminal liver disease. Rudy, in his guilt, decides to live out a foolish act of vandalism, once Mogie dies, as a penance.Overall, the film is solid, but there are times when the lighting and set up of scenes feels very amateurish. The story is rather banal, and dull, but Schweig and Greene, as the brothers, almost make up for that, and Greene is that rare actor who can both play a stereotype and subvert it. Schweig, as Rudy, is also very good, although no credible reason for his mental break is given. The scenes of the men's youth is a place where more could have been fleshed out, and a focus on the brothers, and Mogie and his son, would have been far more effective than Rudy's break. There is also a wasted romance between Rudy and Stella, played by the beautiful Michelle Thrush- an actress who can say more in a silent glance than many can in a two minute monologue. Yet, despite these positives, the film is a bit of a dud. Hopefully, in whatever his third project is, Chris Eyre can put all the wonderful little parts, moments, and performances into a tour de force.

I enjoyed this film a lot. So many times are Aboriginal People shown in the Romantic Period (i.e. prairie bareback horse riding, warriors, etc) It may not be Chris' finest edit, but a well thought out film. The actors did their jobs and the film was made on the Pine Ridge Reserve. It shows both ends of the spectrum when it comes to First Natiosn people. Those effected negatively by the modern world, and those who've overcome it's tragedies.Chris Eyre is great at getting at the truth, many people find some of the content offensive, because it touches home. People have said "this happened to my family," and this is because it has. This is real life.

I found this film to be very moving because I loved the way Rudy was being a true vigilante in trying to rid alcohol from his rez! :D Even after the freak accident where Mogie got caught on the roof of that building where Rudy set fire to it, he still continued doing the right thing by trying to banish alcohol from Pine Ridge! :) I really admired him for that. However it was really sad to see Mogie be the complete opposite of the family. Unfortunately while Rudy was a successful cop, Mogie was always a trouble magnet for whatever reason. He was just never as successful and trustworthy as his brother.But I think the real point to this film is how alcohol is still a major problem with many different First Nations across Turtle Island today. Thankfully there are many Native folks out there who refuse to take in such a trashy form of liquids unless of course taken in moderation. However I really don't think Mogie wanted to be just another "statistic" in his own rez. He really was a good person to be with and everything but for some reason or another he was unable to handle his drinking (some Natives can handle it more than others) But he never could. I don't know for sure if he was the only one in his family who drank. But fortunately for Rudy, it never crossed his mind. On a personal note, I will always curse the whites for introducing that crap to the Natives from the time they first set foot on their land like that. I think whites did MORE bad than good for them and I also think they should pay dearly for bringing all those bad things. The unfortunate reality is that they never will because they'll always blame it on Native people themselves for choosing to take in the bad stuff. Well, excuse me here but if the whites would have never introduced the stuff to begin with then all the FN's would have never had a problem with it.....period!! Well........ ANYWAY......... this is why I gave this film a 7 out of 10.