Blast from the Past! : "Skins"

     One of the most stereotyped, misunderstood and misrepresented ethnic groups in American media today are Native Americans.  It seems the only movies they're depicted in at all have teepees, headdresses, and cowboys chasing them with guns.  A question arises: Where is the Indian of today?  And how should he be represented?

     Luckily, we have directors like Chris Eyre, who, as a Native Indian himself, has appropriate insight into issues and lifestyles today on the reservation, and along with great talent, can make extraordinary films.  Skins is a perfect example.  Released in 2002 and based on a novel by Adrian C. Louis, Skins tells the story of Rudy Yellowlodge, a Sioux Indian working as a cop on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, one of the poorest places in the country.  While Rudy watches his people descend into alcoholism, unemployment, and senseless, violent domestic feuds, he tries his best to keep the peace within his own family - especially with his older brother Mogie, who lives up to almost every poor, drunken, deadbeat Indian stereotype.  Mogie and Rudy care deeply for one another as brothers; they both endured an alcoholic father and saw firsthand how isolating, discouraging and depressing "the rez" could be.  It's clear Rudy chose a different path in life, serving the community in law enforcement and contributing to society, but he is restless and infuriated by the politics of what goes on around him, though he's powerless to control them.  From drug addicts abusing their wives and killing their friends to white liquor store owners setting up shop on the border of the reservation, and making a killing off alcoholic Natives with a welfare check to spend and plenty of time to spend it, Rudy is at the end of his rope.  As Mogie begins to sink more and more into trouble, first with the law, then with his health, Rudy becomes a rez vigilante, out to set everything right that has been wronged against his people - realizing that the first changes must begin within himself.
     This film is better written, more endearing, and a more realistic perspective into the Native condition than Eyre's previous work, Smoke Signals, ever hoped to be.  No matter what your race or skin color - brown, black, yellow, or white - this movie will affect you.  Graham Greene's performance as Mogie is amazing, both funny and heart-breaking, proving exactly why he is one of the most well adjusted and successful Native Hollywood actors today.  Eric Schweig and Gary Farmer do not fall short in their roles either.  This film won a load of awards at Sundance, and in a perfect world, would be better-known and more famous than Smoke Signals and Pow-Wow Highway.    This movie doesn't enforce us in our perceptions and paradigms about Native Americans, and thankfully so.  It smashes and tears down every notion we've had, and everything we've supposedly learned about Native culture and issues.  We finally have an accurate film about the Indian of the present, not the past, and we're invited to see and share the burden laid on him everyday. 
     And just as a sidenote, I would be totally down with the renovations and "adjustments" to Mount Rushmore if the Ogala Sioux wanted them.


(img sources = artistdirect.com / brianredesign.com)