September 16, 2006

Hoosiers on the rez

Just watched Edge of America, which I reported on in my last Indian Comics Irregular (Slam Dunk and Strike Out). Short verdict: Good but not great.

On the positive side, it gave us another nitty-gritty look at life on the rez. More so than the Hillerman movies or even Skins or Smoke Signals, this feels like the real thing. And we may have seen more Native women on the rez--more Native women, period--than we've ever seen before. Good to know they're not just stoic helpmates to male warriors.

On the negative side, the cultural and racial conflicts felt undermotivated at best, contrived at worst. In some movies, you know how the big picture doesn't quite hang together even though all the details work? This movie was the opposite. The overall thrust made sense but every little bit seemed unbelievable.

Rob's rating:  7.5 iof 10.

1 comment:

Rob said...

Yes, it stars James McDaniel and yes, it's out on DVD. If I mention seeing a movie and it's not playing in theaters, I almost certainly saw it via Netflix on DVD.

FYI, Chris Eyre directed it. I've seen most of Eyre's movies and I give them all a rating between 7.0 and 8.0. That seems to be his range: never mediocre but never great. Always pretty good.