| SKINS |
 2001 –
USA
Director: Chris Eyre - Reviewed by Linda
Brothers Rudy (Eric Schweig) and Mogie (Graham Greene) have fought their land's legacy in different ways. Mogie, once the strong older brother, went to fight in Vietnam for his country, but deteriorated upon his return into a washed-up drunk. Rudy, now a reservation policeman, has become so desperately frustrated with his nightly calls to break up drunken brawls and domestic violence that he decides to take matters into his own hands. But Rudy finds that his vigilantism ultimately comes at a personal price. In Skins, director Chris Eyre intersperses the drama with documentary footage of the actual reservation, focusing his camera beyond the surface stereotypes. He takes us deep into a community that has struggled to keep its cultural identity and traditions, while fighting a seemingly endless cycle of alcoholism and poverty. Graham Greene gives a solid, if very-hard-to-watch performance as the always drunk and stumbling Mogie, but Eric Schweig, who needs to carry the film as the responsible brother, is a bit wooden and kinda bland. Taken just as a dramatic film, Skins is OK, and not particularly memorable. But as movies showing the modern lives Native Americans are rare to non-existent (Eyre's own Smoke Signals is the only other film that comes to mind), that is enough reason to check out Skins if you get the chance. [Parts of this review were quoted from the film summary I wrote for the official SIFF program.] |
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Just over 60 miles southeast of one of the United States' most enduring symbols, Mount Rushmore, is the poorest of all American counties, the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. With the unemployment rate at 75% and death by alcoholism at a rate
nine times the rest of the country, the Sioux rez has its own enduring symbol at the center of its land: the memorial for the hundreds of men, women, and children massacred by the U.S. Army at Wounded Knee in 1890.
