Indian Horse

By no means a perfect movie, Indian Horse is still one of the most powerful films I have seen in a long time. And if you want smaller, Canadian films to come to the city, I recommend showing it support.

This post is spoiler-free until the end, at which point I will have a big warning and paragraph break so you can avoid it until after seeing the movie.

At the end of my screening of Indian Horse, there was silence in the theatre. Even as the credits started to roll, no one got up or started talking. For a minute or two we just sat there, taking in what we had just seen.

By no means a perfect movie, Indian Horse is still one of the most powerful films I have seen in a long time. For almost the whole duration (which I’ll get into in the spoiler section) I was completely in the world. I had genuine smiles of joy at points, and at the end there were tears in my eye. Looking at social media, I see I’m not the only one to have this experience, nor was mine the only theatre that people just sat and took it in at the end.

So, some things if you are on the fence about: it is not a hockey movie, though the trailer frames it that way. But your ideas about sports movies are used very effectively. Nor is it a “residential school movie”, though that is more apt. But I saw a couple of people refer to it as a PSA and I can say it felt nothing like that to me. Speaking as someone who has sat in on Truth and Reconciliation hearings, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls inquiry sessions and spoken to survivors of the residential school system, this felt very true to life, and the actors portrayed the range of emotions masterfully. And the small errors I felt were in the film are by no means enough to detract from my overall recommendation.

Also, and this is specifically for those of you in Prince George which is where I saw it: not a lot of people showed up to my screening. This will affect future decisions about whether smaller, Canadian films get a theatrical release here (or other small cities). I’ve done numerous stories on this when people complain about Academy Award-nominees not coming to town– it is based on past performance of similar releases. So the less-than-half-full theatre I went with opening night doesn’t bode well for future chances.

Which is a shame because this is a movie worth seeing on the big screen. I recommend doing so while you have the chance.

OK here come the spoilers!

Really, there are spoilers ahead.

Alright.

There were only two points in the movie that took me out of them, and both came near the end.

The first was the revelation that Saul had been abused by the until-then kindly Father Gaston Leboutilier. I struggle with this.

At first I thought it was because I wanted there to be at least one good person within the residential school system, to capture a bit more nuance, and questioned whether that says something about our desire to give the people who perpetrated these abuses the benefits of the doubt. And, probably, that is part of it. But thinking about it further, and reading some other reviews, I think my bigger issue with it is it felt a M. Night Shyamalan-style twist in a movie that didn’t need it. To that I’m inclined to agree with Boyd Van Hoeij, who writes of the revelation:

“There’s no need to reveal [Leboutilier’s] true nature only years after Saul left the school, especially because the film sticks to a perspective close to Saul’s throughout but somehow this not-insignificant detail was always overlooked. And since it arrives this late, it also makes it impossible to examine in any detail how Saul really feels about Father Gaston, who sexually abused him but also made it possible for him to find and then practice his passion. If revealed early on, their complex and painful relationship could have even functioned as a kind of metaphor for the Canadian state’s treatment of its native peoples, but the film now treats it as a kind of gotcha!-all-clergy-were-actually-evil moment, which doesn’t do the more complex truth any favors.”

I also note that I haven’t read the book and I’m given the impression that the narrative-style of Wagamese’s text allows for the Leboutilier revelation to be revealed in a way that feels more natural than it does in the movie. I will be reading it for sure.

The other small moment that took me out was the very end, when the filmmakers added editorial voice in the form of text about the residential schools. This is where it did veer into PSA territory and did detract from the final beauty of the movie-proper. That said, there are still so many people who don’t know about residential schools I understand the inclination to tell audiences, “Hey, this is a movie, but this stuff happened.”

Again, though, neither of those moments ruined the movie for me because so much else worked. I particularly loved the ending, which I suppose is a credit to Wagamese more than the movie-makers themselves. But, there are two directions this movie could have gone that would have been less powerful. The first would have been to have Saul make it to “the big game”, a “credit to his people”. This is the version of residential schools so many in mainstream society want– sure, there were problems, but look at these successes! I’m glad it didn’t go there.

I’m also glad it didn’t end in full-fledged tragedy: Saul dead, or destitute, or otherwise at some very low point. Of course, sadly, that could have been truthful, as there are far too many real stories that did end that way.

But to give him such a small, yet such a major, victory, in returning to run-down, one-industry community and being greeted by friends and adopted family was so much more affecting. It showed strength that so many people who haven’t lived a life like Saul’s fail to see: simply going on, finding a place to belong, and then sharing the story of what you have endured is a triumph in itself, and deserves to be celebrated.

One more thing: Jesse Wente has some thoughts on where this movie fits into the overall conversation around who gets to tell Indigenous stories, and you should listen to it, too.