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Smoke Signals
Jan. 18th, 2006 02:27 pmWe watched Smoke Signals. I've long liked the movie, although I think the character Victor is a bit too much of an asshole.
There's a monologue that closes the movie I've always been emotional about. Having had my father die when I was seven, I suppose it's no surprise. It's adapted from the poem, "Forgiving Our Fathers," by Dick Lourie. Sherman Alexie, who wrote the screenplay, was the one wise enough to include it. It goes like this:
"How do we forgive our fathers?
Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying our mothers? For divorcing, or not divorcing our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing or leaning? For shutting doors? For speaking through walls, or never speaking, or never being silent?
Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths? Saying it to them, or not saying it?
If we forgive our fathers, what is left?"
*^*^*
But then, maybe the most practical line from the movie is this one, purely from Alexie, spoken by the character Thomas Builds-the-Fire (as the above monologue is):
"Sometimes it's a good day to die -- and sometimes it's a good day to have breakfast."
There's a monologue that closes the movie I've always been emotional about. Having had my father die when I was seven, I suppose it's no surprise. It's adapted from the poem, "Forgiving Our Fathers," by Dick Lourie. Sherman Alexie, who wrote the screenplay, was the one wise enough to include it. It goes like this:
"How do we forgive our fathers?
Maybe in a dream. Do we forgive our fathers for leaving us too often, or forever, when we were little? Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage, or making us nervous because there never seemed to be any rage there at all? Do we forgive our fathers for marrying, or not marrying our mothers? For divorcing, or not divorcing our mothers? And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness? Shall we forgive them for pushing or leaning? For shutting doors? For speaking through walls, or never speaking, or never being silent?
Do we forgive our fathers in our age, or in theirs? Or in their deaths? Saying it to them, or not saying it?
If we forgive our fathers, what is left?"
*^*^*
But then, maybe the most practical line from the movie is this one, purely from Alexie, spoken by the character Thomas Builds-the-Fire (as the above monologue is):
"Sometimes it's a good day to die -- and sometimes it's a good day to have breakfast."
