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Indigenous Book/Movie Report (Reflection Paper)
The movie “Indian horse” premiered at the Toronto international film festival in
2017. “Indian horse” was directed by Stephen S. Campanelli, a young movie director and
camera operator. He is a French Canadian, born in Quebec, and he is multilingual. He has
directed few films, but the film” Indian horse” was his favorite because it is basically about
native Indians and their struggle, and come, they overcome everything. First it was a released as
a book then adapted into a movie in the North American markets. This movie was the second
feature film from the director, but he had made few movies, but this movie was his favorites
because he was native Indian himself. The movie was produced by two companies: Devonshire
Productions and Screen Siren. The budget of the movie was $8 million, and it made only $2
million at the box office, but this was enough to make it the highest-grossing English Canadian
film of 2018. This movie was released all over North America on April 13 ,2018. This movie is
100 minutes long. However, this movie was biggest flop at the box office movies theaters all
over the North America markets.
The main summary of the movie is that in 1959 at the age of six, Saul and his older
brother separate from his family. Saul’s brother and grandmother die, and he is accidently
captured by racist white men who hate native Indians, and they send him to a residential school
where they faced unthinkable treatment. For example, they forced them to learn English,
follow their rules by waking up on time, going to school on time, and did not allow them to
speak their own language. Saul and the other children were forced to give up their language, their
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culture, and even their real names. Next, the movie revolves around the main character who likes
hockey. He plays hockey and likes to watch it on television. By watching, he learns many game
skills, and when he plays well with those techniques, his mentor allows him to play in a local
hockey league.
After a few years Saul has developed good hockey skills that allow him to join in a small
hockey league called “The Moose.” He gets noticed by the Toronto Maple Leaf’s scouts and is
hired to play on their minor league team. However, in every game he faced many racist slurs
from the audience, opponents, and even teammates because he was native Indians. People were
racist towards Indians, and the audience threw many racist symbols on the ice while he was
playing. Eventually, Saul quits the team and drifts between many different hockey leagues from
1979 to 1989. He becomes a drunk and an alcoholic, and he faces many problems. He becomes
very ill and addicted to alcohol, and eventually he gets admitted to an indigenous centre where
he recovers, and eventually becomes a good person. He admits how he was sexually assaulted as
a young boy while he was in residential school. Eventually when he gets back to his hometown,
he is welcomed by his past family members, and he spends his days happily.
The “Indian Horse” screenplay made by the director is written very well because there
was suspense going on in the movie right until beginning to the end. There are ups and downs in
the movie, and there was one scene in the movie where the nuns were attacking the young Saul
because he was not following the rules. That was an important scene in the movie, and there is
another argument scene where two characters in the scene fight. The grown-up Saul is beaten up
by another antagonist character in the movie; it also was a very important scene in the movie.
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The lead actor in the movie does a very good job. He looks exactly like a real native
Indian in the movie by wearing native Indian clothes, and his hairstyle is authentic. Other
characters in the film acted well, especially the nuns. For example, the one scene where nuns get
angry with the students because they are not speaking English. I like that scene also, there is
another scene where audience in the stadium through stuff at Saul I like that scene because is it
very painful watch this kind of scene.
Over the past 100 years there have been lots of Hollywood movies in North America
theater, but this movie that misrepresent indigenous people very badly. Some Hollywood
movies, for example, “Little Big Man, pcahontas11, The Lone Ungermane, and, The Ridiculous
Six, are not good representations about native Indians by Hollywood movies that directed by
some of the famous movie directors in the Hollywood movies. By watching “Indian Horse,” we
could learn about misrepresentations of native people among the general public.
I don’t know why after Saul and his brother were beaten up, they ended up in the
residential school. I don’t know why they were strict with those two just because they were not
following instructions. We must not allow those small kids to do whatever they want, but also
not be so strict. There were very unpleasant treatments of the native Indians. When Saul entered
the arena, many people yelled racist salutes and insults at him. I don't know why many
Canadians hated them. I still have questions in my mind why so many North Americans hated
natives because of the way they looked. I still have that question in my mind. After watching this
movie, I felt very sorry for those main characters because when they were young, they were
forced to learn English and follow their rules and regulations. I don’t why any humans would
behave like that, and force people to forget their culture.
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After doing this movie report, I learned many things about indigenous Canadians. Their
stories, their struggles, how they overcame these problems, and how they faced many barriers,
even today. Therefore, by researching this movie I had learned many things about indigenous
Canadian.
References
“IndianHorse (Film).”Wikipedia,WikimediaFoundation,4Mar. 2020,
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Horse_(film).
