TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Sammy-Jo Cervantes There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

gcsman The systemic racism and government-sanctioned damage done by the residential school system in Canada has been much in the news in recent years and deservedly so. This film -- which was just put out in general release in our area a week or two ago, though it made the rounds of film festivals last years and has multiple awards from those -- is a searing look at what was done to native children in one such school, but it's more than just that. From beginning to end it amounts to a pretty comprehensive biography of one man, Saul Indian Horse, from age 6 to middle age, and covering the 1950's through the '80's.One thing that runs through the whole film that really just draws you in unspoken is the ambience of quiet and often stillness -- it's more of an attitude exuding from the First Nations characters in the story than anything to do with the action, but it's something that became evident once we had left the theater.Young Sladen Peltier plays Saul as a boy and he's excellent. The opening scenes show him with his parents, brother, and grandmother living in the wilderness and more or less on the run from the white authorities who are bent on taking the boys away. We see them in stunningly beautiful landscapes and doing just fine. Anyway -- thanks to a series of family tragedies Saul is taken away and the main story starts. It's a chain of deep lows and transcendent highs from there, as Saul survives the brutalities of the school system but finds daily escape in hockey, which he turns out to excel at: on the ice, he's fast, elusive, and a genius around the net. This is his ticket out of the school and on to a series of bigger and better league play. He's strangely standoffish from the teacher who seems to be the most supportive, Father Gaston (Michael Huisman), for a reason that's revealed only at the end (and you can probably guess what I mean). Saul is played at successively older ages by Forrest Goodluck and Ajuawak Kapashesit, who are also right on the mark.But at the level of the Toronto Monarchs (a feeder teem for the genuine big leagues) the relentless abuse from the (then) all-white opponents proves too much -- and although this remains unsaid, his own teammates don't 'protect' him as they would another star player. The inevitable meltdown occurs, he disappears from sight, and falls into the familiar cycle of alcoholism and low level jobs. Finally, meetings with a recovery group bring him back to some level of equilibrium and peace.This story doesn't end like the Jackie Robinson saga. Saul doesn't reach the glory and fame in the major sporting world that he had the talent to gain. The highs and low finally settle somewhere in the middle -- he returns to the only place that he was comfortable, happy, and welcome as a teenager and young man.Clint Eastwood was a co-executive producer for Indian Horse. Apparently he was surprised and shocked that this kind of systemic abuse happened in Canada, which he thought was so civilized and 'polite'. It was everywhere. For one of the Australian takes on the same issue, go back and see Rabbit Proof Fence, which also deeply affected me two decades ago when I saw it. The First Nations are finally more able to tell their own stories.

gizmomogwai I actually had a chance to meet Richard Wagamese very shortly before he died; he was an inspirational figure. I knew he had written novels about the residential school experience. Soon we're going to get the great Canadian film about the tragedy, but so far there haven't been many attempts. Indian Horse seemed like a promising candidate, but falls short.In ways a sports movie as much (or more) than a story about the residential schools, Indian Horse rarely rises above TV movie-level in its direction. There are some great shots- the first glimpse of the nun coldly looking down on the children, flashbacks when toys are being thrown onto the ice and how these toys blend into the memories- but these are few. The film starts off with a strong look at the cruelties of the school under Catholic control, but veers from that. (Incidentally, Canada's association of Catholic bishops recently released a letter denying involvement in residential schools. This is a blatant lie, or put in their words, bearing false witness under God). Part of the drift away from a strong film involves the less-than-stellar performance of Ajuawak Kapashesit. This is a decent film, but we should be looking for more.

maurice yacowar Dolby Sound is a vital force in this film. The narrative is framed - beginning and end - by unseen people around the theatre speaking as if before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That was established to explore Canada's historic abuse of its indigenous citizens - from the notorious Catholic schools to the current injustice in the treatment of natives, especially the women. When the film narrative unfurls it's the hero's own long and cripplingly suppressed story of his suffering. The surround sound voices put us in the committee, make us a witness and potentially a sharer of the speaker's horrid experience. That stereo adds to the immediacy of Richard Wagamese's source novel. The story is so riveting and the social predicament it exposes so compelling that one can suspend ordinary judgments upon such things as the acting, the narrative rhythm, the emotional manipulation. The cause justifies the means. All three actors who play Saul at various ages hold us, from the child's innocence through the adolescent's promising success to the adult's defeat. The climactic revelation of the six-year-old's exploitation provides an unexpected and summary shock. Wagamese celebrates Canada's indigenous culture and spirituality in the face of its national oppression. The film does both his fine work and Canada's shame justice.

Ash_Hail_To_The_King_Baby Here are some lovely performances from the younger actors, but for the most part the cast fails to support the weighty material. Director Campanelli (Momentum) and screenwriter Dennis Foon (Life Above All) are clearly trying to pack as much of Wagamese's book into a feature film as possible. But their approach renders most of the secondary characters one-dimensional, leaving actors like Michael Murphy, Michiel Huisman and Martin Donovan struggling to breathe life into bland expository dialogue.The three actors who play Saul Indian Horse over some 30 years of his life - Sladen Peltier, Forrest Goodluck and Ajuawak Kapashesit - are uniformly terrific all others should look into a different field of work, and the film does have its moments. But there's no doubt in my mind that the story would be better served at miniseries length.