Smoke Signals Film Analysis

Smoke Signals Film AnalysisRising From the Ashes A Tale of the Boys of upgradeThe movie Smoke Signals (Directed by Chris Eyre) tells the story of two boys, Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, and their quest to get Arnold Josephs (Victors experience) ashes from Phoenix, Arizona. But its really a story abtaboo life, death, and transition life in the birth of the boys and their coming of age, death in the collection of Arnolds ashes, and the rebirths they both undergo along the trip. Thomas makes the statement that he and Victor atomic number 18 born of fire and ash they are both born of fire and ash, and regenerate through surface the movie through both fire and ash.Thomas being thrown from the burn house gives the allusion that he was born from flames. The baby Thomas being flung from the flames is a direct allusion to the phoenix myth, he was reborn when he flew from the flames. The detail that Victors father caused the fire in the first place and then saved Thomas al so shows a rebirth of Arnold, because he saved Thomas out of guilt for starting the fire that killed Thomas parents in the first place. Arnold catching Thomas is the only reason the child survives, giving Arnold a get out of jail free card for starting the fire only Arnold cant let it go and spends the rest of his life beating himself (as well as his married woman and child) up about starting that fire all those years ago.Thomas tells stories about Arnold and everyone else on the modesty throughout the movie which are not inescapably true, exactly he believes every word of them. These stories almost always revert back to Arnold, the man who saved his life as an infant. Thomas idolizes Arnold as his savior, having deceased through his initial rebirth with him as his savior. Thomas final rebirth comes when Victor gives him part of Arnolds ashes. Victor has finally realized that Thomas love for his father is a connection they share for the same reason Arnold saved them both from th e fire.Victor is reborn when he collects his fathers ashes from Phoenix (the name being an obvious allegorical reference to the drool of the phoenix), Arizona. Victor cant afford the trip to collect his father, so Thomas convinces Victor to let him come along in permutation for paying both of their ways to Phoenix. Throughout the trip, Thomas recollects stories of Arnold, all of which cast him as the hero and not as the villain Victor sees him as, however, each cadence Thomas tells one of his stories, Victor becomes angry and tells him to just shut up. Victor wants to hold onto the idea of his father as the bad guy, the one who beat him and his bring up and ran off when he was only a child, instead of the man who ran back into the burning building to save him (which he learns from his fathers neighbor while at the trailer park collecting Arnolds ashes and possessions). Once Victor is finally convinced to go into his fathers trailer to check for belongings that he may want, he be gins the rite of letting go, cutting his hair to signify the loss of a loved one.Another rebirth Victor goes through during the collection of his fathers ashes is when he is running for suspensor after the wreck and collapses just as he reaches it. He has just run all night in boots, which were nt intended to be running shoes, and is some dead from exhaustion when he finally makes it to safety but throughout his run he remembers the past and the things he has been told (the truth) about his father and the man he truly was. As he hits the ground he looks up in his feverish and nearly dead state to see his father standing over him, extending a hand to save him again (only this time it isnt his father saving him, its a construction worker he fell to the ground in take care of). When Victor comes to in the hospital, he is a changed man. He has been reborn into a calmer, happier person, even allowing Thomas to tell his stories the whole way back home to the reservation without once correcting him or telling him to shut up.In the final scenes of the movie, Victor is spread his fathers ashes in the river (Thomas had just given him the analogy of his father rising up as a salmon by his ashes being released in this way) and as he scatters the ashes, he screams Victor is finally letting go of all the indite up emotions. All of his hurt feelings, anger, and resentment are released in the battle cry he issues as he spreads his fathers ashes. He has been once again reborn from his fathers ashes, just as a phoenix would. This final rebirth through ash is also given over to fire because as Victor is spreading Arnolds ashes, Arnolds neighbor from the trailer park, the one who found him, sets fire to his trailer in order to cleanse and release Arnolds spirit.This movie is a coming of age tale about to young men who share the common bond of a savior, though neither finds out until the end. Throughout the movie, the phoenix story is heavily referenced, from the burning bu ilding and the boys being saved from it in the beginning, to Arnolds trailer being burned down, to the final scene when Victor is spreading Arnolds ashes in the river. These boys have to take this journey to discover not only who Arnold was, but who they are. Thomas is born of fire, being reborn in the first fire that Arnold not only accidentally started, but then saved him from. Victor is born of ash, the ashes of his father, which caused the journey in the first place which allowed him to learn who his father really was and what he had done for him. The boys left with the family relationship one shares with an annoying kid sibling, but they return friends who share the common bond of Arnold and what he did to save them both.Works CitedSmoke Signals. Dir. Chris Eyre. Perf. Adam Beach, Evan Adams, Irene Bedard. Mirmax, 1998.Film.