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![]() Tonto's take By Ray Pride JULY 6, 1998: As directed by Chris Eyre, "Smoke Signals," based on several stories in Sherman Alexie's 1993 short-story collection, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven," is by turns warm and mystical, angry and hilarious. Alexie's characters, lifelong twentysomething friends Victor Joseph (handsome Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds-the-Fire (a comical and quizzical Evan Adams) take a colorful road trip from Idaho's Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation to Phoenix to confront the legacy of his father (Gary Farmer), who disappeared a few years earlier and never returned. "They say when Indians go away, they don't come back," one character observes ruefully. But even more rueful is Thomas' reflection as the pair watch a movie on television in a rundown house trailer: "The only thing more pathetic than an Indian on TV is an Indian watching an Indian on TV."
Before I have a chance to ask Eyre to elaborate on how that approach contrasts with other filmmakers, he continues, "Anything that the film does is political, I think, because it's about Indians, y'know? And that in itself hasn't been done by Indians. The sensibilities that come into play with [an Indian writer, director, co-producers] are ones that we as Indians laugh at ourselves. Things that are important to me are not the same as a director who's non-Indian. It's self-representation. I think that's the strength of 'Smoke Signals.'" (Ray Pride)
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