Smoke Signals

YOU MAY ALSO FIND THESE DOCUMENTS HELPFUL

• Smoke Signals and the Oral Tradition Essay

  ...Word Count: 1128 Smoke Signals and the Oral Tradition While watching the movie Smoke Signals, it can be readily observed that the story is driven not only through the adventures of the two main protagonists; Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor Joseph, but also through the words and histories spoken by Thomas, who is a practicer of the spoken word, or oral traditions of Native Americans. The oral tradition was used by Native Americans to pass down history, culture, traditions, and their beliefs. The use of storytelling in the film gives the sense of time with the flash forwards and flashbacks. Written by Sherman Alexie and directed by Chris Eyre, Thomas and childhood friend Victor, go from bickering pals to having a great respect for one another. At first glance, this movie appears to be a road trip movie, but then Alexie does much more than follow the archetype of the genre. When the two boys were just babies, Thomas’ parents were killed in a fire that was accidentally started by Victor’s father Arnold. Although Arnold failed to tell anyone of this deed, he did try to overcome his sins by saving the two boys’ life. Thomas does not forget this and holds Arnold in high revere. Thomas, having been raised by his grandmother, only knows a two parent family by proxy, through Victor. Victor holds a high level of resentment for his own father, both for leaving him and his family, causing him and his mother...

  1178  Words | 3  Pages

• Smoke Signals Essay

  ...Smoke Signals 1998 - USA Director - Chris Eyre About the film... Winner of the Audience Award and the Filmmaker's Trophy at the 1998 Sundance Film Festival, and the official selection for opening night of the 1998 New Director/New Films, SMOKE SIGNALS is one of the most unique films of the year. Filled with the rich aesthetics and beautiful mood of American Indian culture, Sherman Alexie's story of friendship, love and loss (based on his award-winning short story, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven") comes alive. Set in Arizona, SMOKE SIGNALS is the story of two Indian boys on a journey. Victor (ADAM BEACH) is the stoic, handsome son of an alcoholic father who has abandoned his family. Thomas (EVAN ADAMS) is a gregarious, goofy young man who lost both his parents in a fire at a very young age. through storytelling, Thomas makes every effort to connect with the people around him; Victor, in contrast, uses his quiet countenance to gain strength and confidence. When Victor's estranged father dies, the two men embark on an adventure to Phoenix to collect the ashes. Along the way, SMOKE SIGNALS illustrates the ties that bind these two very different young men and embraces the lessons they learn from one another. About the soundtrack... TVT Soundtrax, one of the industry's most eclectic and progressive soundtrack companies, is...

  491  Words | 2  Pages

• Smoke Signals Essay

  ...Martin Waweru 5 May 2013 The Smoke Signals Smoke Signals is a film that was directed by Chris Eyre back in 1998.It was based on a collection of twenty two short stories by Sherman Alexie in his book, Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.The book was published back in 1993. The film features Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-the-Fire.They are brought up by Victor’s father, Arnold in an Indian Reservation in Plummer, Idaho. Arnold later abandons them and moves to Phoenix Arizona. When Arnold dies years later, Victor and Thomas have to travel to phoenix to collect his remains.During the journey, the differences in perspectives between Victor and Thomas is well seen. The movie adaptation of the Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistifight in Heaven is faced with a number of problems however the director tries to give solutions to most of them as I will discuss in my writing. The characters in the film are not well defined initially as the play starts with a house on fire.I believe this creates a lot of suspense to the viewers. A voice-over by Thomas tells us that his parents died in the fire during a party where the independence of the white man was being celebrated. Thomas as a baby is thrown out through the window where Arnold catches him. A voice over by Thomas says that Victor and he were born of fire. Later, the characters are well described. Victor is a basketball player while Thomas is a storyteller. Consistency...

  569  Words | 2  Pages

• Smoke Signals Character Analysis 1 Essay

  ...David Perez Prof. David Finley ENG101/ENH255 8 September 2010 Smoke Signals Character Analysis #1 Sherman Alexie created a character named Victor who is portrayed in Alexie’s work this is what it means to Say Phoenix, Arizona. Alexie’s short story was also developed into a film by Chris Eyre named Smoke Signals. Victor is the main character in both the movie and the film and they are about him and his travel on the way to Arizona where is father passed away. With him he takes Thomas Builds-the-Fire and together they travel from their reservation in Washington to Phoenix to collect Victor’s father’s valuables. In the movie, Victor’s feelings toward his father and Thomas seem to be stronger than in the story and throughout the adventure Victor’s feelings change noticeably. In both the movie and the story, Victor’s father leaves and in the film Victor seems to resent his father for doing so, more so than in Alexie’s short story. In Eyre’s film Thomas asks Victor about his father and Victor responds with,” What about him” (Smoke). Victor says this not only in front of Thomas, but a couple of his friends and when he says that he just smiles and shakes his head. This shows that Victor does not care about his dad that much because he made his statement in a sarcastic tone of voice. Through out the short story Victor refers to his father as dad and father, where as in the movie Victor only refers to his father...

  685  Words | 3  Pages

• The Weight of Smoke The Structure of the Adaptation of Auggie Wren s Christmas Story Research Paper

  ...Using the theme of storytelling, Wayne Wang and Paul Auster’s film Smoke (1995) expands on the structure and ideas presented in Paul Auster’s short fiction “Auggie Wren’s Christmas Story.” In an interview after the film was completed, Auster states that with written fiction, the reader is always creating the images of the story in his or her mind. It is with this concept in mind that Auster and Wang structure their film around the theme of storytelling. With a sense of seamlessness achieved through the interconnectedness of the stories presented, the filmmakers focus on the storytellers on the screen, using them as imaginary image creators instead of dehumanized narrating voices. After a screening of the film in its entirety, including the seminal credit sequence, a question arises concerning the choice by the filmmakers to leave out the black and white footage of the filmic visualization of the Christmas Story (which they obviously possess) in favor of one long slow zoom in on Harvey Keitel as Auggie. Many presumptions can be made about why Auster and Wang made this decision, but one of the more reasonable only presents itself after a closer examination of the only sequence in the film that doesn’t fit into the storyteller-centered structure of the rest of the film – the sequence concerning Auggie’s photographs. In this sequence, Auggie relays to Paul the story of his life’s work as a photographer of his street corner in Brooklyn, and more importantly...

  1260  Words | 3  Pages

• Signal Words Essay

  ...Signal Words--1 Signal Words* 1. Continuation Signals (Warning—there are more ideas to come.) and again a final reason last of all moreover other too also and finally furthermore likewise next secondly with another first of all in addition more one reason similarly 2. Change-of-Direction Signals (Watch out—we’re doubling back.) although despite however in spite of the opposite rather while but different from in contrast nevertheless on the contrary still though conversely even though instead of otherwise on the other hand yet 3. Sequence Signals (There is an order to these ideas.) first, second, third in the first place then before after into (far into the night) last since o’clock later A, B, C for one thing next now while until during always on time earlier Signal Words--2 4. Time Signals (When is it happening?) when lately at the same time once immediately already final during now little by little after awhile 5. Illustration Signals (Here’s what that principle means in reality.) for example for instance such as in the same way as specifically to illustrate much like similar to 6. Emphasis Signals (This is important.) a major development a significant factor a primary concern a key feature a major event a vital force a central issue a distinctive quality above all by the way especially important especially relevant...

  559  Words | 3  Pages

• Movie Analysis Smoke Signals Essay

  ...Smoke Signals Will Parsegian In the movie Smoke Signals there are many thoughts of themes. In this story many themes are developed and there are many conflicts that inflict themes. But my opinion of the theme is that everyone makes mistakes and no matter how much it hurts you they deserve to be forgiven. Out of all the conflicts in the story there is a few that inflict the theme more than the others. The first one is at the beginning of the story, a house is on fire and two babies are saved. The babies saved are Thomas and Victor. The man that saves the babies is the dad of Victor. That conflict is the initial conflict of the story. Then when Victor is about twelve, his dad leaves him. This conflict can be considered man vs. man or man vs. self. This starts the worst of the conflicts in the story. After that Thomas always bugs Victor about why his dad left. This causes them to argue. This conflict is man vs. man. Later, when Victor and Thomas are teenagers Victor’s mom gets a call saying that Victors dad is dead. This conflict is man vs. self or man vs. fate. After the call, Victor needs to go to were his dad dies but he has no money so Thomas offers to give him the money but he has to go along with him. On their way there they meet a gymnast and as Thomas is talking to her, Victor tells her to get over her problems and that she’s a liar. This makes Thomas mad and that conflict shows how Victor really...

  453  Words | 2  Pages

• smoke extraction Essay

  ...Name: Leung Chun Wai Student no.: G20554292 Topic: (NT3048) Smoke extraction design for large space such as atrium 1. INTRODUCTION Atrium inside a building is an old architectural concept for about two thousand years. This concept has been developed and extended to modern buildings. Current trend of atrium design provides an ‘ideal’ external environment to the occupants with a large undivided space. The major problem for fires in atrium is hot and toxic gases accumulating and go down in the atrium, spreading throughout the atrium, and affecting escape routes, even there is no fire. Generally, atrium design is classified into three types which are cubic, flat and high [1, 2]. Cubic and flat atria have been widely applied in U.K. and Europe. For tall atria, it can be commonly found in Hong Kong and U.S.A.. The objective of this paper is to evaluate the performance of smoke exhaust system inside a tall atrium and develop such a ‘fire engineering’ approach, which can underpin a simple guide for engineers in the smoke management for tall atrium. This Report is intended to assist designers of smoke ventilation systems in enclosed shopping complexes. Most of the methods advocated are the outcome of research into smoke control by smoke ventilation at the Fire Research Station, but also take into account the recommendations1 of the Working Party on fire precautions in town centre...

  10885  Words | 28  Pages