Skins
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Movie Reviews of Skins
Movie Review: A messy movie with a powerfully-packed message
Summary: 3 Stars
My thoughts are torn over "Skins," one of the few films to chronicle the sad, wasted lives of Native Americans and the bloody history that has informed the misfortunes of nearly an entire culture.Directed by Chris Eyre, the movie undeniably has powerful scenes, not the least of which is the closing image, which involves a debasement of Mount Rushmore.
For me, the lasting image from "Skins" is the sight of a local (Gary Farmer) killed by a bear trap set by neighbors. A disbelieving reservation cop (Eric Schwieg) wants an explanation for it -- the bear trap, why nobody answered the obvious calls for help -- and there is none. Not plausible, anyway. So many of the Natives' problems have their roots in something, whether it be a history of abuse or lack of opportunities, but they do not justify much of the mindlessness that has invaded the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota.
Eyre knows that, and to prove his point he makes that cop, Rudy Yellow Lodge, a vigilante who beats criminals and burns down Nebraska liquor shops in his off hours. His efforts, essentially, are just as fruitless as anything else: The drunks still get drunk, the reservation remains mostly hopeless, and the brutal past cannot be changed.
Which brings me to the other side of my thoughts: "Skins," while powerful, is poorly made. The editing, the documentary-style camerawork, some of the acting -- it's simply left wanting. Given the subject matter on the table, the absolute dead-in-the-eye importance of it, it probably sounds like quibbling to criticize production values. Nevertheless, I mention it, because it stands in the way of a better film. You look at "The Fast Runner," an amazing achievement shot on a similar small budget in far harsher conditions, and you get an idea of what "Skins" is lacking. "The Fast Runner" is a masterpiece film generations will return to. Some have hailed "Skins" that way, and it'd be nice if that were true, but the proof isn't on the print.
When "Skins" does work, it's usually because Graham Greene is onscreen. Greene is Rudy's older brother, Mogie, a relentless-if-remorseful drunk, a failed promise apparently wrecked by a tour in Vietnam. He ambles around the package stores just across the border in Nebraska when he's not working his brother into a frenzy; the fun ends when Rudy torches a liquor store while Mogie's inside trying to left some booze.
That happens at the halfway point, and "Skins" then shifts into nothingness. The bear trap scene aside, not a lot happens in the movie's final half -- Rudy and Mogie acknowledge the big fire, but never work themselves up over it, while Mogie tries to make peace with his teenage son (Noah Watts). Basically, the last 30 minutes are an elongated "final days" sequence for Greene.
The final scene is the attention-getter most remember. I admit, it's well-conceived, but the execution of it is amateurish. If you understand editing, you'll wonder why, when the movie's only amazing camera shot is revealed, this shot lasts, at most, two seconds. It aptly sums up "Skins," a movie with a lot to say, and poor visual strategies in which to tell it.
Movie Review: Morally Bankrupt
Summary: 2 Stars
Sorry, but I have to disagree with all these high ratings. I was extremely disappointed with this movie and I am still even a bit depressed by it.
The acting is good, the setting is marvelous and the story is real -- but only real if you're fine with protagonists who represent the lowest common denominator in human moral experience.
Rudy Yellow Lodge, the main character, looks like a pretty good guy on the surface. He's a cop. He's intelligent, clean cut, articulate and serious about his work. However, his way of handling his rage is that he goes around at night in blackface and a stocking cap engaged in helpful public services -- breaking some teenager's kneecaps with a baseball bat, torching a liquor store and vandalizing Mt. Rushmore with oil paint. That's the sort of thing he likes to do when he's not busy enabling his alcoholic brother and sleeping with his married girlfriend. What's up with that? I read somewhere that the Sioux are traditionally very family-oriented people, but if this movie was my only source of information, I'd have a very different impression.
Not only is Rudy the worst kind of violent criminal -- a cop with no respect for the law -- he's also almost completely remorseless. The kids he sends to the hospital for broken knees confess their actual crime (yes, they murdered someone). All he cares about when he interviews them is: Do they know who messed them up? In other words, do they have ID on him and is he going to jail yet? A brave Lakota warrior in the making.
Then, rather than acknowledge to himself that he is creating a lot of pain in people's lives, he attributes many of the tragic consequences of his acts to the contributions of Iktomi, the trickster spirit in Lakota spiritual beliefs. That is because he keeps seeing little spiders. Rudy goes to a sweat lodge to see if he can clear Iktomi out of his life, but do you think that he ever considers, for one minute, changing the hostile and illegal course of his life? Nah.
In case you're in doubt about the real theme of this movie, listen closely. It's repeated two or three times and it goes something like this: whatever happens in this life, we have no control. We're completely at the mercy of unseen forces. Right.
The clincher is that his brother Mogie, who rarely takes anything seriously, has written Rudy a very long letter on his deathbed, asking him to take good care of his son, because Rudy is the only GOOD role model the kid has. Oh his way back to the Rez, after dumping oil paint on Rushmore, what do you think Rudy sees? It's his 18 year old, handsome nephew trying to thumb a ride out of town! Do you think he turns around, to at least give this kid a lift so he doesn't end up facedown in a ditch somewhere? Heck no! He laughs and drives away!
Wow!
Even though I totally understand the defacing of Mt. Rushmore, and I understand the appalling poverty depicted in all its truth in this film, I think the Oglala Sioux were very unfavorably portrayed by Chris Eyre. If I were Native American, I'd be asking Eyre to chose another profession quickly -- or at least another subject! And all this time I thought the Cheyenne and the Sioux got along together very well .... What a rotten movie, and what a disgusting portrayal of sadly overlooked and under-represented minority in this country!
For once, how about a movie that depicts GOOD pepole who are also Native? That is what they always used to say about the westerns with whooping hostiles scalping everybody. I never thought I'd have to make that complaint about an N.A. producer filming on a real reservation in the 21st century. If Eyre wants to straighten his karma out, how about a movie about the life of Donehogawa?
Movie Review: Disappointing
Summary: 2 Stars
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.
Movie Review: Veil Between the Material and Non-material worlds
Summary: 2 Stars
Excellent movie for any viewer to get a fundamental understanding of the inter-connectedness of all humans and the spirits, or the parallel worlds and other dimensions, on this level of reality .Movie Review: Not the Lakota way.
Summary: 1 Stars
It's sad that this movie had to dwell on the negative stereotypes of our reservation life. It was also sad if not pitiful that the cop portrayed by Schweig had to commit a cowardly sneak attack on two drunken teenagers and break their knees with a baseball bat, then he sneaks down to White Clay, again like a cowardly thief in the night, and throws gas on a package store, and setting it on fire, almost kills his own brother. Then, as his final insult, again at night, he sneaks up on Mt. Rushmore and defaces the sculptured image of George Washington, the Father of our Country.
These are definetely not the Lakota Way. The Lakota Way is Akicita wicaya wastelo! - the Way of the Good, Manly Warrior! to be strong and in your face and not sneaking around like a snivelling little coward. I would have hoped that these actors would have known better - to portray Lakotas as people with pride and dignity. But then they are probably not Lakotas. Also, to deface Mt. Rushmore was a hideous act; the Lakota take great pride in being American Veterans and the Flag is Honored at all of our Powwows.