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.