Older Than America (2008)

This was an interesting film, and while it was made by and mostly featured native Americans, it focused more on the story, where other films often focus on the plight of native Americans and the living conditions on the reservations.

This film does cover an important chapter in American history that is not taught in high school.  In fact, I would considering this to be the second most important event in that all Americans should know of in American history, with the genocide of native America people being the first.

I though this film would be more about the history of the atrocities committed at the so called Indian schools, perhaps even close to a documentary.

While this film turned out to be more of a suspense film, it did a pretty decent job of covering the atrocities committed at those Indian schools.

One point that I was left unresolved was the fate of the preacher.  While the film gave the impression that he was made to pay for his evil deeds, I would have preferred it if his actual fate was shown more cleanly,such as him being arrested.

While Bradley Cooper was in this film, playing the white guy, obviously, I had no idea he had become a big name actor, or that he was one of the stars of the film, The Hangover.

Apparently this movie was rereleased at American Evil, which I think is misleading, as it gives the impression the film is a horror film, which it is not.

Dance Me Outside (1994)

This is an interesting look into the lives of native Americans living on a reservation.  It's not preachy, and there is more to the story than just their living conditions, as it shows what directions their steer their lives in, (or lack of direction) as well as how they deal with the murder of a native and the unjust punishment given to the white man who committed the crime.

I am a little surprised to see that Frank and Silas are quite aimless, and appear to put a priority on getting drunk.  I know this is common among young people, and a problems among natives, but for me it seems completely pointless.

I was a bit appalled at the way had Illianna sleep with Gooch, behind her husband's back, due to his problems with infertility.  I don't know if this was just something the writer thought up, or is something culturally acceptable to native Americans.  Obviously, being a lawyer, Robert McVey, would have had access to fertility treatments, as he would have enough funds to pay for them.

It was interesting they way the the natives took Robert McVey to have him take part in a sacred native American ceremony, but I would think Robert would have suspected something, as it didn't appear they had gone to a site that was prepared for a sacred ceremony, as the site was littered with car parts and looked very make shift.  And some of the ridiculous things they said and had Robert do, should have been a give away.  Most obviously was when Silas, when speaking of his spirit animal said "I am the walrus"  That scene may have been just for entertainment value.

It's always great to see Adam Beach in a film, who was so outstanding in Smoke Signals and has created quite a career for himself, being in a large number of films, both native and Hollywood.

The Breadwinner (2017)

I have seen two other films by Cartoon Saloon, a studio that is far from the mainstream, in both the topics of it's stories and it's style of animation.  This ain't Disney.

Angelina Jolie is listed as one of the executive producers on the film, as she seems to have developed an interest in foreign cultures since working on Tomb Raider in Cambodia.  While I appreciate that Angelina Jolie has some clout which may have helped to get this film made, I am unsure why Angelina Jolie is considered a box office draw, as I don't know of any film that she has made that was outstanding.

This gives a good look into the life of living under the taliban regime, and it's is not pretty.

This is definitely an important film, but doesn't have the replyability or the enjoyment of Disney films

Atlas Shrugged (2011)

This is less about the film, and more about Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism.

First, I am glad that they were able to make this into a movie, as the book is infamous and daunting, both in it's length and it's philosophy, so having it in a more accessible format helps with those aspects of the material.

Still, the production appears to have been plagued with problem, as the entire cast of the film was recast with each subsequent film.  While the actresses who played Dagny Taggart do resemble each other somewhat closely, the actors of the other three (or four) main actors varied rather wildly in looks and age.

Also, when the book was written, the rail lines played more of prominent role in transportation.  While the film adaption is set in the modern age, they altered the present age to give railroads a prominent place, making air transportation and other land vehicles no longer efficient transportation methods.

I became interested / aware of Ayn Rand's philosophy of objectivism from playing the original Bioshock.  While the philosophy does play a role in the story of game, it is not an overwhelming one.

The problem with Ayn Rand's philosophy, is it is an extreme counterpoint to communism (as Ayn Rand was born and raised in Russia), but to an extreme that ignores reality and practicality. With the exception of Dagny, all of the other prime movers of came out with a revolutionary invention.  The concept says basically that these people should be able to take all the rewards of their inventions for themselves, but this completely overlooks that the inventors are rarely the same people as the businessmen who set up a system to make those inventions profitable.

Furthermore, in the community John Gault has set up, it is apparently made up of only these geniuses, which leads to the question of who does the manual labor of things such as laying down the roads or clearing the backed up toilets?  A genius's intellect is not put to best use doing such tasks.

If these prime movers were to disappear, as the did in Atlas Shrugged, they would be quickly replaced, as the business aspect of the world is not a scarce talent.

One other thing about this, is that the prime movers were able to completely remove their inventions from society, but once the cat is out the bag, there is not getting it back in again.  Patents were meant to protect the inventors for a limited period of time, and even if the patent were eternal, others would be able to examine those inventions and eventually create their own copies.

Pow Wow Highway (1989)

This is another native American made film, featuring a full cast of native Americans.  As if nearly required of any native American film, Graham Greene and Wes Studi both have roles.  These are two of the actor who appeared in Dance with Wolves, as well as numerous other native American films.

It is an interesting "adventure" film, but doesn't go deeply into any issues of the condition of native Americans today.

The character of Farmer has great faith in the old spiritual ways, and in this film, his faith pays off.  Unfortunately, I don't see that as a positive thing, attempting to rely on what is essentially superstition to solve your problems.

Buddy, on the other hand has abandoned the old ways, and is much more practical. While he seems to be more in control of his life and the issues that affect him, as I said it is Farmer and his spiritual ways, that save the day repeatedly.

The Brave (1997)

I was really interested in watching this movie, when I first heard about it, back in the late 90's but I was unable to track down a copy until just recently.  I found out that Johnny Depp, for whom this was his directorial debut, and also in large part financed the picture, didn't care for the early negative reviews of it in the American press, after the premiere screening, so he never released the film to theaters in the US nor has it ever been released on DVD or home video in the US.  Strangely, I was in Japan at the time of the initial release of this film, but I never saw that it was in theaters over there, nor have I seen it available on home video or in the video stores there.

I had planned on watching every film that Johnny Depp made, in the 1990s (that is when I had my plan), and I believe I have seen all but two of his films made in the 1990's, but since then I have not kept up with Johnny Depp's films.

I was primarily interested in this film because of the Native American aspect, in that it is supposedly set in a reservation type place and that the characters are themselves supposed to be native Americans, but this film captures nothing of native American life style, or culture.  While there was a single actor of native American decent in this film, and Johnny Depp who plays Raphael, does look vaguely native American, (or, he looks less like a stereotypical caucasian) no other actors are of native American decent, and a large number of them are Latinos, and even some of the music sounds Latino.  The area they are living in, on the side of, and surviving from scavenging from a trash pile, sounds nothing like a reservation or where native Americans would be living, and more like that you would find in the third world.  I didn't see any sign of native American culture in this film, from the way the people acted.  The only attempt at showing native American culture, was a odd extremely short ceremony Raphael participated in after his fight with Luis.

I felt it was very odd that Raphael and his family set up a lot of their furniture outside their house, as it made not sense, because if it were to rain, obviously everything would get ruined, such as the TV.  Also, it seemed really odd that he would waste a large portion of his money on those things, as it would have been better spent on necessities.

While my interest in this film stemmed from the native American aspect, this was clear not something the makers of this film were concerned with.  The reason the characters were created as native Americans was to the term "Brave" which could be used to describe a native American warrior, could as be used to describe how Raphael was brave to sacrifice himself for his family.

One to the things that made me hesitant to watch this film, and even stop half way through and wait a couple of weeks before finally finishing watching the film, was the "snuff" film aspect, which Raphael was supposed to participate in.  This really upsets me, as a concept, first because of the concept of killing for entertainment abhors me, and the concept of torture, equally so, but also the fact that snuff films do not actually exist.  I was perturbed that the film was going to depict the torture and killing of Raphael, as this wasn't something I wanted to see.  I spent the whole film, thinking that Raphael, had to change his mind about going through with it, that staying with his family was by far more important that that money.  I also was expecting some one in the film was going to save Raphael from this horrible deal with the devil he made.  I thought the police of FBI or some one would find out about, and close down the snuff film "studio" or perhaps the priest might stop it, or come up with the money in another way.  But, I guess the point of the film was that at the beginning, Raphael was "dead" and he only came alive again when he could finally provide for his children.  The question the film was posing was, would some really die for their family.  While I can see saving your family is a worthy reason to give up your life, I don't agree this would be a help way to do it.  I would think staying with them and providing for them through all the years of their life would be much more worth while.  I think the real question about giving up your life for your family is more like taking a bullet for them, than the method covered in this film.

At the end of the film, they showed the construction equipment coming and demolishing the housing that the people had set up, showing that Raphael's sacrifice was completely in vain.

It was amazing to see Marlon Brando appear in such a minor film, but his role was quite small (and perhaps even unnecessary), but was a big addition for marketing the film.

Island of the Blue Dolphins (1964)

This is less about the actual movie, and more about the actual events that inspired the story.

I was amazed to find out that Island of the Blue Dolphin was made in to a movie, even more so, that the movie was made in 1964, so I have gone 50 years without hearing about this movie.

I read this book as a child, and I am pretty sure I was assigned to read it in school.  At the time, I didn't have a great interest in native Americans and I kind of wondered why I was reading that story.  It seemed odd, as she was trapped on the island all alone, and I expected little would happen over the course of the story, so I was waiting for her to be rescued the whole time.

The movie is a faithful adaption of the novel, as far as I remember.  I read that the actress who played Karana, Celia Kaye,  was awarded for being an upcoming actress, but it seems that her career never took off.

One thing that bothers me about this story, is that after reading up on it, while it is based on a real story, it is much like the story The Perfect Storm (the movie, not the book) where no one knew what took place at all, so the story was just a made up account of events that could have taken place.

Sadly, I read that the woman who was stranded on that island for 18 years, died of dysentery 7 weeks after being rescued.  At the time she was rescued there was no one left who could speak her language, so on one was even able to find out what her real name was.  I am kind of appalled that she died of dysentery, as it seems like the cure to that affliction is just to drink more fluids.  While other factors come into play with dysentery, it merely exists in severely impoverished counties these days.

One other thing is that after checking the location of the island she was trapped on, it is merely 72 miles from Los Angeles.  When I read the book, I though she was trapped on an island hundreds of miles from shore, it turns out, she was close enough the she could have potentially paddled in her canoe to the mainland (though I don't think she was aware of the location, or perhaps the existence of the mainland.

I was also a bit surprised to hear that the hunters were hunting otters, as I didn't recall that from the book.  I know there was a huge otter massacre around the time of these events, which nearly drove the otters into extinction, but I didn't know that at the time I read the book.

Stranger still, not a single otter appears in this film.

Also, I read that some one had gone back to the island and found some artifacts that were mostly likely used by the woman, though a number of those items were lost in the great San Francisco earthquake in 1906.  And her cormorant cape, which was sent to the vatican, appears to have been lost.