Andrew Hendricks

Questions for Discussion:

1.What were the most important meanings that you found in this film? What messages
do you think the filmmakers were trying to communicate? What aspects of this film deal
with situations unique to Indians, and what aspects concern universal human themes?

2.Near the beginning of the film, Thomas says, “You know, there are some children who
aren’t really children at all. They’re just pillars of flame that burn everything they touch.
And there are some children who are just pillars of ash, that fall apart if you touch ’em.
Me and Victor—we were children born of flame and ash.” What does Thomas mean by
this? What images of fire and ash appear in this film?

3.After Arnold saves Thomas from the fire, Grandma Builds-the-Fire says to him, “You
saved Thomas. You did a good thing,” and Arnold replies, “I didn’t mean to.” Why does
Arnold respond in this way?
Arnold responds in this way because he was the one who accidentally started the
fire in a drunken stupor. Even though he saved Thomas, he still felt guilty for the
rest of his life about starting the fire that killed Thomas’s parents.

4.Near the end of the film, Thomas asks Victor, “Do you know why your Dad really left?”
Victor replies, “Yeah. He didn’t mean to, Thomas.” What didn’t Arnold mean to do?
What does this exchange reveal to us about Victor and Thomas?
The exchange means that both Thomas and Victor know that Arnold started the
fire, and he left because he was ashamed and guilty about what he did.

5.Thomas’ monologue at the end of the film is adapted from “Forgiving Our Fathers,” a
poem by Dick Lourie, a non-Native author. The film’s version of the poem is given
below. How does this poem work as a conclusion to the film? How do we forgive our
fathers? Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often or
forever? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because
there never seemed to be any rage there at all? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying
or not marrying our mothers? For divorcing or not divorcing our mothers? And shall we
forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for
pushing or leaning? For shutting doors? For speaking through walls, or never
speaking, or never being silent? Do we forgive our fathers in our age or in theirs? Or in
their deaths? Saying it to them or not saying it? If we forgive our fathers, what is left?

(For the full text see Ghost Radio by Dick Lourie.)

6.Our images of ourselves and of other people come not only from our experiences of
ourselves and of other people, but also from movies, television, books, and other media.
How have Native Americans typically been represented in American popular culture,
especially movies? (Recall LaDuke’s discussion of this topic in Last Standing Woman,
108-110.) How does Smoke Signals conform to or break with these images?

7.This film repeatedly uses humor to comment on stereotypes about Indians. Identify
some of the humorous scenes in the film. Why might a Native audience find them
funny?

8.What does being an Indian mean to Victor and Thomas? (Recall especially their
conversation on the bus when Victor ridicules Thomas for watching Dances with Wolves
so many times). Where do you think that Victor has gotten his ideas about how an
Indian should act?

9.Discuss the following comment by Sherman Alexie. Do you agree with his
understanding of fiction? What do you see as the role of Thomas’ stories in the movie?

“It’s all based on the basic theme, for me, that storytellers are essentially liars. At one
point in the movie, Suzy asks Thomas, “Do you want lies or do you want the truth?,” and
he says, “I want both.” I think that line is what reveals most about Thomas’s character
and the nature of his storytelling and the nature, in my opinion, of storytelling in general,
which is that fiction blurs and nobody knows what the truth is. And within the movie
itself, nobody knows what the truth is.” (“Sending Cinematic Smoke Signals: An
Interview with Sherman Alexie,” by Dennis West and Joan M. West, Cineaste 23 (Fall,
1998): 28 (5 pages), http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/alexie.html).

10. The characters of Thomas and Victor can be thought of as representing the active
and contemplative aspects of life. In what way does each exhibit these characteristics?
Is this a useful way of thinking about the life choices each of the young men have
made?

11.Trivia question: What are the names of the women who drive around the reservation
in reverse, and what is the significance of their names?

12. From a Sherman Alexie Interview:

Cineaste: You have called your screenplay "groundbreaking" because of its portrayal of
Indians. Why?

Sherman Alexie: Well, it's a very basic story, a road trip/buddy movie about a lost father,
so I'm working with two very classical, mythic structures. You can find them in
everything from The Bible to The Iliad and The Odyssey. What is revolutionary or
groundbreaking about the film is that the characters in it are Indians, and they're fully
realized human beings. They're not just the sidekick, or the buddy, they're the
protagonists. Simply having Indians as the protagonists in a contemporary film, and
placing them within this familiar literary and cinematic structure, is groundbreaking.

What is your opinion on stereotyping of races in films? Can you give examples from
films you have seen? Is stereotyping ever OK?