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Twenty-eight-year-old Chris Eyre is very much the reason for the film. Together with Native American author Sherman Alexie, Chris helped develop the script, directed and co-produced the landmark film. His efforts were rewarded with two awards at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival. Smoke Signals has also earned rave reviews across the country while making a significant run at the box office.
The movie is the story of Victor and Thomas, two present day Coeur d'Alene Indians, who travel to Phoenix, Arizona to retrieve the remains of Victor's deceased father. Both young men learn valuable life lessons as they journey outside the "rez".
Eyre discusses the genesis of the movie and talks about some of his favorite Indian films from movie history. Readers who supplied the selected questions will receive a Smoke Signals theatrical poster autographed by Eyre.
Hear excerpts of the Chris Eyre interview in RealAudio! Get the free Real player.
How did your relationship
with writer Sherman Alexie begin?
Steve Patrick
Boulder, Colorado
CHRIS EYRE:
I read his anthology "The Lone Ranger And Tonto Fistfight In Heaven" in '94 and went to a mutual friend and asked him for Sherman's phone number. And called Sherman out of the blue and asked if he'd be interested in trying to adapt one of the stories into a feature length film. I told him that I thought "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix Arizona" would make... the structure would make a wonderful feature film.It's a road movie which I'm partial to in the first place. It has two characters who go on a journey and to me as a filmmaker it seemed logical to be able to track two characters from point A to point B and back to point A. Like in a dramatic arc you can always track where you're at so to me it was very methodic in the sense that I knew where my dramatic arc would be on the way down, on the way back, then the conclusion and, if you want, epilogue. So I selected the story.
We talked about it and then ultimately we behooved each other getting into films. I was a safe, generationally easy person for him to get into movies and for me it was very good material.
INTERVIEWER:
What attracted you to
Alexie's story?
CHRIS EYRE:
Immediately in the story I was drawn to Thomas. Originally I even conceived the movie to be a story more about Thomas. I think in the end, the movie is about boy forgives father. When you talk about boy forgives father, inevitably it's Victor [Joseph]. Although Thomas had relationship with Arnold Joseph, ultimately it's Victor's story. Victor is the protagonist because it's his father.
I would still say it's a near 50-50 relationship because Thomas is such an interesting, charismatic character. He borders on a very special person. I was careful not to put Thomas too on the nose in that sense. I said before if a non-Indian has made the movie they would have made Thomas a shaman in the first 10 minutes. I was very conscious as not to do that.
To make Thomas an affection... With all the characters, the goal I had in mind was to make affectionate characters. To make likeable characters. Thomas Builds-The-Fire... The only time he's one the nose is at the very end of the film where I was with Evan Adams and said, 'OK now, when your grandma asks you what happened, 'Thomas tell me what's going to happen' treat it seriously.' So he smiles at her and then the smile washes off her face and he blinks and he looks at her seriously in the eyes and says, 'Yes...' This is common knowledge in their family almost. They're privy. They already have an innate relationship, grandma and Thomas. And she says, 'Tell me what's going to happen.' and he gets serious for the first time. And he blinks his eyes and he looks at her and he tells this story which is in monologue. Which is a beautiful monologue.
So I was conscious of the fact that I didn't want to make Thomas into a shaman. In the movie he is a very special person. In the end to me it was enough that he was that kind of person. That's probably what shaman is. So Thomas attracted me to the story immediately, and ultimately I think the story may have gotten pulled away from him a bit. It was easy to work with that character.
The more difficult thing was to build Victor into a character that was angry, but also likeable. When he tells the gymnast off we had like reports and test screenings and people, just general people, that saw it that they didn't like him. He was enough of a jerk in that scene where you do a couple more scenes like that and you're not sure how much you're going to like this guy inevitably. How much you can empathize with him in the end. But in this case it was fine. It wasn't too much. The harder thing was the sullen, wounded character making this stoic character like he says, 'Get stoic,' to Thomas. Making him likeable. Of course his looks don't hurt. He's a handsome guy but that's a little bit more of a challenge.
But Immediately I was drawn to Thomas. Immediately to me the concept of home, permeated the whole story and all the characters. We kept working on the concept of home. That's one of the strong subtexts of the movie. Arnold Joseph is a man that is exiled from home and that's a very, sad, sad statement in its self. It's haunting that this man never was able to redeem himself to the ones he loved and home ultimately is wherever you are. It's the ones you love it's what home is.
So they all have different degrees of absolving home. Suzie, you get the sense that she is going home... Grandma and Arlene are very grounded at home and Thomas goes away from home and changes a little bit and comes back to who he is at home. I think Victor will ultimately appreciate home more in the end. And Arnold dies away from home. He dies wanting home. So, the subtext of home and for me personally the subtext of home -- I was adopted so I have all of this... I yearned for 25 years for what home was which was finding my biological family. I think that was a subtext that really grabbed me.
And the fact that it completes a circle in a way. I think that's a great story structure. He brings his father's ashes back home and releases his father there. It is a great structure. It's a completion. So the subtext home attracted me tremendously too. And it was good material. We helped each other out in getting this movie made.