the lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven sparknotes

There are a few flashbacks to help explain the older man, and although they're brief, they're strong and well done: We see that Arnold is more complicated than his son imagines, and able to inspire the respect of the woman he was living with in Phoenix ( Irene Bedard). Victor nurses a resentment against him, but Joseph is understandably more open-minded, since the man did, after all, save his life. If they are the future, Arnold, the Gary Farmer character, is the past. They are the next generation I would assign them to Generation X if that didn't limit them too much. policies toward Indians over the years, but 'Smoke Signals'' is free of the oppressive weight of victim culture these characters don't live in the past and define themselves by the crimes committed against their people. (The reserved Victor, impatient with Thomas's chatter, accuses him of having learned most of what he knows about Indians by watching 'Dances with Wolves,'' and advises him to spend more time 'looking stoic.'') There are references to Gen. 'Smoke Signals'' was written by Sherman Alexie, based on his book 'The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.'' He has a good ear for speech, and he allows his characters to refer to the real world, to TV and pop culture and the movies.

And as the movie settles into the rhythms of a road picture, the two characters talk, and the dialogue becomes the heart of the movie. That would be a big concession for Victor, who is tall and silent and has never much liked the skinny, talkative Thomas.

He has no money for the journey, but Thomas Builds-the-Fire ( Evan Adams) does-and offers to buy the bus tickets if Victor will take him along on the trip. Victor has a deep resentment against his father, but thinks he should go to Phoenix and pick up his ashes. He leaves behind his son Victor Joseph ( Adam Beach).Īnd then, 20 years later, word comes that Arnold has died. He is caught in the arms of Arnold Joseph ( Gary Farmer), a neighbor with a drinking problem, who is eventually thrown out by his wife ( Tantoo Cardinal) and goes to live in Phoenix.

It's significant not only for America but for the infant Thomas Builds-the-Fire, who is saved by being thrown from an upper window when his house burns down at 3 a.m. The film opens in Idaho on a significant day: the Fourth of July, 1976.

The lone ranger and tonto fistfight in heaven sparknotes