There are a lot of good things about this movie. First, it starts off as a buddy movie. You know how two guys who are totally different are thrown together through circumstances beyond their control, and at first they clash but eventually learn to appreciate their differences and become good friends. The buddy effect of this movie is very believable. Both guys are likable with totally different personalities and played by good actors.Another factors is the "indian-ness". Those of us who aren't Indians have never been exposed to the jokes. In one scene, they walk into a house, and a old cowboy and Indian movie is showing on TV. One guy says, "The only thing more pathetic than Indians on TV is Indians watching Indians on TV." There's a whole genre of jokes that people like me haven't been exposed to.Also a high point is the quality of the actors. One is the breathtakingly beautiful Irene Bedard. She is just plain beautiful, and she plays a very loving, caring, warm young woman, someone you can admire. Another is Evan Adams who plays Thomas, a super-dork Indian who watched "Dances With Wolves" a hundred times so he could master the old Indian medicineman accent much to the annoyance of his friend. His parents died when he was an infant, but his grandmother just loves him so much. That was touching. And Thomas is a story-teller, and most of stories are just weird. I'd love to have a guy like that at a party.But the overall theme of the movie is how a young man deals with a neglecting father. The father leaves when he's a kid. It hurt him, and the movie shows a little of how he trying to overcome.

I don't want get too political during this review, but I believe that this movie is not good as a result of a compounded number of societal failures. The fact that this was acclaimed as the first movie to have Native American characters portrayed by Native American actors and a Native American writer and director is unfortunate because in an objective sense, it's not a well crafted or well executed film. This is not because Native Americans are naturally less talented in artistic pursuits, but they just aren't given good opportunities to become artists or actors. Now, much of the blame for that can be attributed to the settlers and pioneers that took America for their own in centuries past, but, in the words of V, "if you are looking for the guilty party, you need only look in the mirror."Sherman Alexie's writing was rather disappointing considering how much I've loved his books. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is one of my favorite books because of it's sarcastic wit and emotional resonance, but unfortunately Alexie doesn't show the same proficiency as a screenwriter that he does as a novelist. There is still some of the same tone from his novels here, like in the song about John Wayne's teeth. Despite this disappointment, he has written a story that is deep and bittersweet at its core. Even though Victor and Thomas and Arnold are a little annoying, they have human conflicts that really aren't resolved at the end. In many coming of age stories like this in which the hero finds his identity, he or she is clearly a better person by the end of the movie. This is not the case in Smoke Signals. I didn't get the sense that Victor had experienced any kind of self-discovery or surge of identity; he just transitioned into a different stage of conflict over his feelings about his late father. Similarly, Arnold did not seem to have died in peace. He never redeems himself for the torment that he put Victor and himself through. This is not to say that the story should have continued, it's just that nothing was really resolved by the end of the story. This is unconventional, but I think it is much truer to life than a traditional happy ending.If you didn't like this movie, I would recommend that you read one or two of Sherman Alexie's books, because I think that they will give you a greater appreciation for what this film stands for. It won't make you like it any more, but it might make you more forgiving of the movie's technical shortcomings. Overall Rating: 6.4/10.

For years, thousands of the movies that produced by Western filmmakers presented Native Americans in a stereotypical way. They showed them a as warriors who are in a constant conflict with white people. These movies depicted Native Americans as savages, murderous defectors, and robbers. In general, these stereotypical movies showed the Native Americans in bad images, and the whites are always heroes. Yet, in 1998, a movie called "Smoke Signals" changed the style of Native Americans movies. It showed Native Americans in a more realistic way. The secret behind this movie is its cast. In fact, "Smoke Signals" written, directed, acted, and co-produced by Native Americans. The writer of this movie is Sherman Alexie who grew up on an Indian reservation in Washington. Unlike the writer a white family in Oregon adopted the director of this movie who is Chris Eyre. The actors of "Smoke Signals" include Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Gary Farmer, Tantoo Cardinal, and others. Comedy and Drama are the main genres of this movie.The story of "Smoke Signals" is about two young Indians men grew up together on an Indian reservation in Idaho which is Coeur d'Alene. Although they grew up together, they have totally different personalities. Victor (Adam Beach) who is a son of an alcohol addicted father (Gary Farmer). His father vanished from the reservation to live in a trailer near Phoenix while he was a little boy. Actually, Victor has a tough personality. However, Thomas (Evan Adams) is the other Indian young man who lost his parents in a fire that caught their home on the 4th of July 1976 while he was a baby. In Fact, Victor's father saved Thomas from the fire. Thomas has a very kind personality, and he always annoys Victor by telling stories about the live on reservation and about Victor's father. After about ten years from the day that victor's father vanished, Victor heard that his father died in his trailer in Arizona. He wanted to travel to Phoenix to bring his father's ashes back, but he did not have enough money for this trip. His friend Thomas decided to help him with the money, but in return he wanted to join the trip to Phoenix. After Victor accepted Thomas' offer, they started their trip to Phoenix that was full of surprising events.There is no doubt that Chris Eyre was very successful in directing this movie. He was able to present the story by adding the sense of humor. The movie contains many funny scenes that convey messages. For instance, the scene that showed the two ladies who were in the car, that moves backward, asking Victor and Thomas if they got their passports to enter the states. Actually, this scene makes the viewer laugh. At the same time, it conveys how Native Americans feel about their reservations as an isolated part form the country. In addition, Evan Adams was amazing in his performance. The character of Thomas adds an important value to the movie, and helped in placing the sense of humor. Thomas' appearance and cloths were very funny especially his over-sized glasses. Beside his appearance, his accent played important role in attracting viewers' attention. Especially, the way he used to call Victor, "Hey Victor." However, this movie has a lot of flashbacks. In fact, all of them were well used. The character of Thomas as storytellers made the use of flashbacks vital in this movie. One of the interesting flashbacks is when Thomas was telling a story about how Victor's mother was able to feed one hundred Indians by fifty fry bread. Beside Thomas' stories, the flashbacks were very useful in showing the life of Victor's father in Phoenix, and how he felt about his son Victor.In general, "Smoke Signals" is a unique movie that produced by Native Americans. It shows the modern life of Native Americans on reservation, their values and beliefs. It also stresses on some issues that related to the history of Native Americans. Actually, "Smoke Signals" is a very enjoyable movie that must to see at least one. It is well written, acted, directed, and edited. On scale of five stars this movie deserves four stars.

Writer Sherman Alexie's new book, Flight, is his first in ten years, and would be another terrific movie (my review is at http://lakeconews.com/content/view/2580/42/ if you'd like to read it) and ten years between films is quite long enough. :-)Smoke Signals gives us an aspect of Native Americans most of us rarely see, their wonderful humor--possibly what saves us white folks from the kind of violent retaliation we see in other occupied lands. Road movie, rez movie,coming of age--it's all that. It would be perfect for discussion in film classes or community groups, especially if there are native people in the group to talk about their reactions to it.