Four Sheets to the Wind - Reviewed

Four Sheets to the Wind
Directed by Sterlin Harjo (Seminole/Creek)

Reviewed by Ernest M. Whiteman III

Now, I don’t generally review Native-produced films too often, if at all, and I’ll tell you why: I run a film festival in my spare time that deals with Native movie makers exclusively and to tout my preference for one over the other would seem unfair. As if I am saying is one is better than the other when the fact that they get made at all is the more important thing. But, I saw something rare in the Native-produced and directed “Four Sheets to the Wind”, that I found missing from many similar independent features; polish.

“Four Sheets to the Wind” is the story of Cufe Smallhill (Cody Lightening), a Seminole/Creek who, after their father’s death, decides to visit his sister, (a stunning performance by Tamara Podemski) who lives off the reservation in the city. What follows is not the standard reservation melodrama or comedic, fish-out-of-water road trip but a startling portrait of a young man finding something better when he was not looking for it. It is a quiet, reserved movie with great performances, racial humor that does not drown out the story with Native talking points, and best of all, it has the feel of intimacy and immediacy of many Hollywood dramas. That is the polish I speak of.

It portrays the reservation lifestyle without falling into the standard checklist of reservation clichés and actually manages to connect to the human experience of losing a loved one as well as moving on to different circumstances. Harjo, Podemski, and Lightening pull off a coup-de-grace of melding performance with craft which is a difficult thing to manage, even by Gigantor Hollywood Production companies.

I saw this DVD in a Blockbuster and was happy to find it there. It was never submitted to the film fest (nor would I take it now - apparently, the movie does not need my help in distribution). Seeing the movie on the shelves of such a large retail chain somehow made it more real as a “movie” (Making “quotation marks” with my fingers.). You could jump all over me for dismissing other Native films but what I saw in “Four Sheets” is a technical know-how that I ttruly appreciated. So, it was no surprise to me when I read Harjo’s bio and found he, like my self, went to film school.

He has learned not only the importance of mood, setting and performance, but of the level of craft you need to bring to tie it all into a compelling movie. I have often stated, and still believe, that a compelling story can overcome the means of bringing it to the screen, which is what makes “Four Sheets to the Wind” something special.

Harjo has learned the importance of lighting, the limits of what a video camera can do, and, probably the biggest lesson I learned in school, the importance of audio. Meaning, firelight is just is just not bright enough to shoot by. Darkened rooms will always need lights. While putting in lights may take away from the “reality” of a scene, you cannot be compelled by the acting and story, if you cannot see anything. Such are the limits of a digital video camera.

The importance of audio is found here as well. Presence tracks, Foley, these may seem like time consuming steps but if your audio levels shift one shot to the next, or suffer horribly from that tinny, “video” sound, then it can get distracting after a while. Luckily, “Four Sheets to the Wind” does not suffer those same mistakes I have made several times.

The two leads carry these elements and Lightening gives a quiet performance of a young Native man that is not hampered with the cinematic baggage of alcohol or drugs, or even Native identity, while present, do not flood the story in grief. His remembering his father to his new friend is a quiet, sad moment in the film and is among one of the best acted scenes in recent film history. But it is Tamara Podemski’s brutal performance of the sister that is the most skillful and full of nuances, it is heartbreaking. The movie has a slice of life feel that ends just when it should.

Character, setting, story, pacing, cinematography, audio, music, in “Four Sheets to the Wind”, they all come together with skill and power.

Native Cinema has been blessed with a near-perfect movie.

Seek out this film. Highly Recommended.

Comanche Moon

Comanche Moon
Produced for CBS Television
Directed by Simon Wincer

Comanche Moon is the final installment of the Lonesome Dove series of made-for-tv movies. The series is based on Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove series of book which began with his Pulitzer Prize winning Lonesome Dove. Both series continued with "Streets of Laredo", then "Dean Man’s Walk" and finishing up with "Comanche Moon", while the story itself begins chronologically with "Dead Man’s Walk" and ends with "Streets of Larado". Confusing, yes, but McMurtry’s way of defy expectations after unexpectedly winning the Pulitzer for a novel he admits to not liking very much.

Comanche Moon continues the story of Texas Rangers Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call, played respectively by Steve Zahn and Karl Ubran, of Lord of the Rings fame, as they battle Comanche Warriors and Mexican bandits on the last frontiers of Texas. For non-followers of the books, this takes place just BEFORE the Lonesome Dove movie.

Growing up in Wyoming you get enjoyment out of western movies. A lot has been made lately about the Native-content in films these days and rightly so. But I’ve always been a fan of the original Lonesome Dove movie as are many Natives. I grew up respecting the cowboy lifestyle as my father was a cowboy, as are my brothers. I grew up watching John Wayne and Clint Eastwood, which is why I enjoy "The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly", "The Searchers", admire a series such as "Deadwood" and which is why I enjoyed "Comanche Moon".

What grounded the series for me was Steve Zahn’s performance as Gus McCrae, first brought to life in "Lonesome Dove" by the great performance of Robert Duvall. Zahn captures the mannerisms and syntax of Duvall’s performance while making the character his own. Urban, however, is unaffecting as Call, first played by the great Tommy Lee Jones. But the weight of Zahn’s acting brought to life one of my favorite moments in the book (Yes, I’ve read all of them, twice.); when Gus and Call decide to strike out on their own to rescue their captain, on the banks of the Rio Grande in the half-built town of Lonesome Dove. Seeing it played out on screen with Zahn’s performance made me smile as it fit my imagination. Such is a rare thing.

What drags this series down is the inevitable circumstance which befalls most prequels, more specifically, prequels that are made due to fan expectation. (Think the Star Wars movies), which is that every little detail must be explained or seen in the movie or it is considered a failure in the eyes of the fans. I am for leaving some ambiguity, sometimes. Think Hannibal Lecter, or The Joker in Batman, but Comanche Moon seems to trip over itself in explaining why Call is the way he is or trotting out the characters from "Lonesome Dove" but in younger forms. McMurtry actually wrote the sequel novel and prequels so as to not let anyone else do it. But he did it in his own fashion because sometimes the continuity does not line up or the novels contradict what was written in the Lonesome Dove novel.

But all that aside, I did enjoy the series. I know that they did research into the Comanche culture and it remains to be seen if they got it correct. I am sure there will be more than one website or review who will list every little detail they got wrong. But that is the easy thing to do. It is like priding yourself on being a good shot when all you shoot is fish in a barrel. It is harder to appreciate the story for just being a story, and the Lonesome Dove Saga has always been about Augustus McCrae and Woodrow F. Call and not the Natives. We have our own Native movie makers to tell our own stories.

While I did enjoy seeing some famous Native faces, they are all mostly wasted. Especially poor Floyd Westermann, who has padded in. It sort of takes something out of it when you can tell none of the primary Native actors spoke Comanche fluently. It seemed stilted. It reminded me of Shonie De Le Rosa’s movie Mile Post 398 in which the entire cast is Navajo and spoke it very well. In contrast to, say, the Hillerman Mystery Movies on PBS where they speak it phonetically. You can tell who is Navajo.

Wes Studi (Buffalo Hump) is Cherokee and to hear him speak Cherokee in "Trail of Tears: the Cherokee Legacy" so elegantly and then to hear him stilt through the Comanche language sort of harms the performance. I wish they had Comanches playing Comanches. Soon enough. I was also sad to see that a couple of my favorite chapters of the book were excised:

In rescuing Inish Scull (Val Kilmer at his hammy best), the Kickapoo tracker Famous Shoes (played nicely by David Midthunder, and probably the best Native performance of the series), follows Gus and Call into Mexico to recover the bones of Three Birds, a Comanche character who dies in the captivity of the Mexican Bandit Ahumado. (Ironically, Famous Shoes was first played by Wes Studi in the series "Streets of Laredo".)

Yet, in the novel this happens in two chapters in which the Comanche Warriors, Buffalo Hump and Kicking Wolf, the famed horse thief who was there when Three Birds died, ride into Mexico on their own to recover the bones. Those two chapters were cool; nicely written, starkly quiet, and very humanizing to the Comanche characters. They bickered, talked, camped, and just hung out like two old friends do. They then gathered the bones and then simply ride back home. Those two chapters, plus the scene of Gus and Call by the Rio Grande made me hope for a television adaptation.

Hell, I would have directed those Comanche scenes for free if it meant having them in the series.

That those chapters were not included is also major disappointment for me. But seeing the early life of Gus and Call and the end of the Lonesome Dove series is well worth a watch. Not the be all end all of Native representation, but worth a look if you are a fan of the Lovesome Dove Saga. Recommended.

The Best of 2007 - The WOS Review Lists

WOS Reviews - Top Ten Lists for 2007
Don’t you hate when you cannot get a simple thing done when inspiration strikes you and you only get it done after it was tried by others, making you look like a follower? I had hoped to get these Top Ten Lists out before the end of 2007 but nothing ever really works out the way you plan. Anyways, now I look like a trend follower.

As you can see, I haven’t done much. Most of the stuff I experienced were stuff from the past, nothing new, or re-experiences. In between work, being out of state, birthdays, I had little time to get out and see stuff. Anyways. So, without further ado, my newly-re-titled "Best of 2007 Lists"!

Music:
1) Batman Begins - Motion Picture Soundtrack - Hans Zimmer & James Newton Howard - My new favorate movie music. I cannot get over this one and it took time for me to really just sit down and listen to it.

Movies:

Of what I watched this year at the theater. And as you can see. I didn’t see much.

5) Rocky Balboa (Saw it in Jan 2007, so it counts.) - People have something against Rocky movies, but this one about aging gracefully is something that should not be overlooked because of its pedigree.

4) Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End - Nice summation to a series that should not be considered the be-all-end-all of cinema, they're PIRATE MOVIES! Johnny Depp is at his best.

3) American Gangster - The performance of Crowe and especially, Denzel Washington anchor this crime drama. "Now, what was I saying?" Awesome.

2) Curse of the Golden Flower (Again, in Jan. Of 2007) - Costumes, drama, matrial arts, Chinese ninjas on ropes, what more could you ask for?

1) No Country for Old Men - I have to admit, this was pretty good. Mainly for Tommy Lee Jones and Josh Brolin. Javier was not very scary, and Woody Harrelson was a victim of the Coens, "be in it to be in it" curse. And let's forget that ending and what it means, as Rolling Stone Magazine states: "It means the sheriff woke up to a dehumanized world of the present." So there. His, and Brolin's performances are worth it. It's just not the Be-All-End-All of Cinema.

Books:

Here's what I read this year, not only what was published this year.

7) DC: New Frontier - Excellent art and writing. Highly recommend.

6) To Kill a Mockingbird (R) - I encourage everyone to pick this up again.

5) It’s Superman! (R) - one of my favorite hidden gems. Stuff like "Kavalier & Clay" and "Soon, I will be Invincible" fall flat with me because the authors are winking at us the whole time.

4) The Journey of Crazy Horse - The best biography of Crazy Horse. Peroid. Right next to the movie I'm gonna make.

3) Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Great writing, great story, great series. What more can be said?

2) The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian - Alexie's best work so far. Again, his translation of Beowulf will be awesome!

1) Three Kingdoms (R) - By far the best thing I have read in my life. And that is saying something. I recommend everyone at least trying to read this. It is dense but what you experience with every reading is both exciting and different.

DVDs:

Which are the same as movies but with extras. Some are re-watches and old dvds.

10) Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - Almost made the Movie list but the DVD has extras!

9) Gojira - I got this for my birthday a couple of years ago and guess what? I still haven' watched it. I want to watch it with a group of friends. (Like "The Passion of Joan of Arc") But it such a thoughtful gift from my wife , I had to include it.

8) Long Way Round - See my notes on this series in the main WOS page for Dec.

7) Le Samourai & Seven Samurai (tie) (r) - I saw these again back in Wyoming and was blown away by their coolness. I love them both and the extras are great as well. Criterion kicks ass.

6) F For Fake (r) - Always a favorite.

5) The Prestige (r) - Again, a favorite. Very inspirational along with F For Fake.

4) Eastern Promises - A great performance by Viggo. Up there with Tommy Lee Jones in "No Country..." and Denzel in "American Gangster".

3) Children of Men - The best movie by far from Curon.

2) Hamlet - by Kenneth Branagh, I waited for years for this and snapped it up as soon as it was available. Bonnie and I tried to get the girls to go to bed with this. They were stalling and asked to watch a movie before bed and we thought this would bore them or put them to sleep. Nope. Our girls followed it from frame one to the Intermission (2 and 1/2 hours) without out once asking to stop. We watched the second half the next night and our girls kept up with the story and plot. Amazing how smart our girls are and how Shakespeare transcends time and generations. Go buy this disc.

1) Deadwood: Seasons One though Three - I think they ended the series as it should. To drag it out would have lent to the characters becoming caricatures. (example: Steve the Drunk). I feel it too late to make the TV movies as the actors are now away from their characters and could be difficult to capture the perfomances again without the flow of the series behind them.

Cakes:
5) White cake with butter cream frosting and chocolate mousse filling. (From Costco)

4) Marble cake with butter cream frosting and chocolate mousse filling. (Costco)

3) My Birthday cake (any type)

2) The splendid cake from Rolf’s we got for Christmas.

1) The Big Food Fight Cake I brought home from work and My Bonnie, the Girls, and I trashed our dining area throwing it at one another in a food fight. That was fun and one of my most cherished memories.

Cookies:
1) Snicker doodles, Home-made chocolate chip cookies, Oreo Cookies.

Insults garnered from television and movies:
1) C*cks^cker (Deadwood) - I use this way too much.

Stuffed Animals:
10) Sir Charles and Lady Rebecca Poopsalot.
9) Ollie-phant
8) Green Lantern Monkey
7) Monkeous P. Monkey
6) Snowie
5)Allie-gator and Michele (a gorilla)
4) Mommy’s Racoon Slippers & the Manatees.
3) Baby & Bonnie Bear
2) Mister Bunny and Little Bear Tinkleberry
1) Ernest Bear & Bonnie’s Bear

I hope these list serve you well. I would have put up Amazon links but I'm really way behind already. Please feel free to comment on your favorites of last year. Oh, I know, some of you do not like to elevate one thing over another, but hey, that's cool. You are also a coward.

Take care all.

Until next time; You are in my Top Ten List of People ...in my Heart. (All five of you.)