Film Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Film Reflection - Essay Example It tries to explore the complex character of indigenous relationships, cultures and modern realities specifically the relationship between the fathers and sons in Native America. It is the story of one young Native man called Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) who stays with his mother Arlene (Tantoo Cardinal) in Idaho on the Coer d’Alene Indian Reservation and he has always abhorred his father and is trying to forgive him. After Victor finds out in the beginning of the film that Arnold his father is dead, he and Thomas his childhood friend set on a journey to pick his father’s ashes. During their journey, the two friends struggle with the constraints of forgiveness even as Victor begins to heal. It starts in the reservation in 1998 and there is a flashback to the 4th of July 1976 when there was a celebration of the â€Å"white man’s Independence Day†. It included holding the largest house party. As Thomas narrates over the image of a burning house. Arnold Joseph (Gary Farmer) accidentally sets fire to his neighbor’s house. The fire was uncontrollable and it ended up killing the couple who lived there but their baby was rescued by Joseph from the inferno after Thomas the baby was thrown out of the second story window from the burning house. The lucky rescued baby; Thomas (Evan Adams) is raised together with Victor who are almost of the same age by his grandmother. The grandmother offered her appreciation to Victor for saving Thomas and she told him he had done a good thing, but Arnold replied amidst tears that he did not mean to save Thomas. This tension which is the result of Arnold’s admission that he never intended to do good sets the tone for the entire film. Joseph shaves his hair in mourning but keeps drinking in desperation due to the inferno and its results. When Victor at 12 years old sees how his parents drunk, he got