You Will Read this Article....

My Star Wars Experience
A Reflection on how The Star Wars Saga influenced a Northern Arapaho Movie Maker

Introduction
While other fans have put out their own experiences viewing this modern classic at or around the time of the movie’s 30th anniversary, which was May 25, 2007. I, however, don’t roll that way.

Anyone, anyone, can write their musing at the time of the anniversary. But to write their musings, and NOT at the time of the anniversary. That’s smart. That’s crafty.

So sit back and get ready to be dazzled as I recall everything I can about the experience of watching Star Wars and telling you of the impact it had on my world....

I. A Long Time Ago....

What is it about a movie telling the adventures of a farmboy who rescues a princess with the help of a wizard, a pirate, two droids and a wookie that has captured my imagination far more than any movie since? George Lucas’ third directorial effort has become the hallmark film for Mortimer-Nerdly/Ferd Burfle film types such as my self. I am at once in awe of this work and a bit jealous because he came up with it first. But that only fires my own passion for movies, to push my work beyond the limits of what a Northern Arapaho movie maker can do or what is expected from.

I remember the first time I went to see Star Wars, it was during the re-release before The Empire Strikes Back. Actually, I remember it is a mish-mash of different scenes. I was probably too young to coherently put together the story. But I loved what I saw. The spaceships, the opening battle in the corridor of the Rebel Blockade Runner. I replayed that opening battle over and over in our home’s only hallway. (Who didn’t?) I know it was the re-releases as I distinctly remember seeing and wondering what "Episode IV" meant. I was eight years old.

I remember that my brothers had an awful lot of the action figures and magazines in a time when there was supposed to have been no action figures to get. So, by way of deductive reasoning, I first saw Star Wars in its re-release. I remember crying my fool head off when after driving around the lot, we could not find a place to park and watch the movie at the Knight Drive-in. I still get teased about it to this day, sitting in the very back of the station wagon, screaming for Star Wars to come back as we pulled out and headed home.

But I still remember the imagery of the film; the stark white hallways of the Blockade Runner, the Imperial Cruiser that seemed to go on forever, the mile-long skeleton lying in the desert, (What was that?!), talking robots, Darth Vader, the noise and blast, the special effects, which seemed real to me at the time. I never wondered how they did it.

As a child I just accepted that they had filmed it as it happened.

The battles and escapes were things that I never experienced before in a movie. The only movie I ever remember seeing before Star Wars is Pinnochio. Seeing a cartoon, as a kid is vastly different than seeing something happen in front of you enacted by adults and really-real things. They were true. If I wished hard enough, I could own a lightsaber, levitate objects with my thoughts, fly a space cruiser, rescue a princess, do the really-real stuff that I saw in Star Wars. When wishing never got me to do that stuff, I used my imagination and pretended, and that has made all the difference....

II. ...In a Galaxy far, far away.

I eventually bought into all the material trappings such as the vast amount of toys, the comic books, the shirts, the posters, and flared my habit for collection. Yet, it is the movie that continues to flare my imagination. The main thing that captured my imaginations; first and foremost, is the mythology. To hear old Ben Kenobi mention The Clone Wars, the Jedi Knights, the Old Republic, it got me wondering and imagining what those "Old Times" may have been like in that world.

I thought the Clone Wars were about fighting actual clones. I imagined Jedis, which looked suspiciously like Luke Skywalker dressed in Jedi robes sneaking around the hallways of the Death Star (The black walls with white vertical dashes) trying to evade a replica of himself. That is what I imagined when I thought of the Clone Wars. But seeing them in Episodes II and III, it made sense, it was not what I imagined, but it all made sense to me.

The lightsabers, nothing captured my imagination more than those pesky lightsabers. What child did not want to own one after seeing the movie? From then on I wielded broom and mop handles with deadly efficiency and compelling punctuation. I even bought one of the first toy versions of it from a mall in Denver. It was a huge black, hollow handle with a yellow, hollow blade that made noises as air passed through it when you swung it. (If I had only kept it in good shape, my college loans would be paid.) Since then I have collected the Master Replicas versions (To the chagrin of my wife.).

Simply put, I wanted to be a Jedi. I had no idea about the influence of Akira Kurosawa or the history of the Japanese Samurai on the contemporary western film. I would learn about that much later. But as a child, all I knew was that it was all real and I had a weapon that saved me from the splendor I lived in, the surroundings and trappings of reservation life. If I could imagine it, it was real. I could live beyond the barbed-wire borders and racial limitations. I wanted to learn those tricks. I wanted to be a Jedi. I became a movie maker instead, and that has made all the difference....

III. Soon, Night Must Fall... On the Special Edition
As my experience points out, not everyone will ever be completely satisfied by anything Lucas does with Star Wars. He could put out the exact movie completely written and suggested by the fans and he will still catch flack for being a money-grubbing maker of crap.
I did enjoy the "Special Editions". Seeing them in the theater in no way impacted my first experiences seeing them upon initial release.

So many are of that, "It should match my childhood experience EXACTLY. Except that the theater I saw it in did not have digital clarity, nor 7 channel Dolby Surround Sound. It was a scratched up print with monaural sound coming from behind the screen that was small, even by 1970's standards, not to mention the artist's prerogative to continue to work on his movie. Other than that, I want a crisp digital image, where Han shoots first, with 9 channel surround sound and crappy special effects! JUST LIKE MY CHILDHOOD MEMORIES!"-crowd.

I still live with the impact it had on me. I still live with the fact it fired my imagination, it allowed me to feel free to be creative and to think and imagine beyond the reservation and put me on the path to becoming a movie maker. I still have that. That cannot be taken away, no matter how many versions of Star Wars come out. To hinge your childhood experience on whether or not Han Solo shoots first is selling your own childhood short.

I can respect the movie maker’s prerogative to keep working on their products. Star Wars was never my movie to begin with. To assume that he owes me something for simply seeing the movie borders on the ridiculous. Did I help him complete his movie, help create the story, the characters, did I help him work hard to get the funding and promotions? No. I simply sat in a theater and watched the finished product. I willingly stood in line to plunk down my money for a chance to simply view the film and take part in the experience of the story.

I know for a fact that if I wanted to redo or fix my movies, I know I can because they are my movies. It is a game the mediocre play to try and keep things on our level when something transcends it. I know that when I make something that will transcend what a Native movie maker can do that I will retain that exquisite right as the creator to goof and monkey with it until the day I slip this mortal coil. When choosing between which version of the Star Wars to buy on the next high-end, over-priced format, that I still live with the impact of Star Wars because of my path in life. I owe my creative life to my mom and dad, my brothers and sisters, my wife and kids, to god, Arapahos, and Columbia, and to Star Wars and Batman.

V. On the Prequels

Let’s face it; I liked the prequels. I found them exciting and interesting. It does not matter "in which order" I watch them, I enjoy them thoroughly. How many movie makers can complete a saga so many years after their initial movie? Still, there are many who just don’t like them. I can understand that. Everyone has their opinions. But do they have cry about it? No matter how intelligent a person claims to be, whenever something does not turn out exactly how they want, they will not hesitate in crying and being a great big baby about it. Even if it is as something as unimportant as a movie.

The Prequels are the perfect example of fanboy disillusionment. The do not want Darth Vader to be human. They want Episode III to be Episode I. They want the black and white morality laid out plainly for them. They dislike the fact that evil can spring from good, no matter how crudely presented it is. That the absolute evil in the galaxy could start as a ten-year-old kid.

The fanboy can never be satisfied because many are all creative beings in some form or another and have simply imagined it their own ways. They clung to those imaginings and when Lucas’ did not match up with theirs? You should have seen the disillusionment coming. Some feel that the Prequels are missing that "something" that the Originals had. I am with you there, but it does not quash my enjoyment of them. What is missing, I think, is that clean slate of imagination. When we saw the Original Trilogy, we had no idea how it would end or what anything would look like.

The Prequels were filling in the gaps that were left in our imagination. As you know the imagination is often better than the real thing. It is like taking a journey to some foreign land, that is the Original Trilogy. The Prequels are like getting to the airport though some unknown route. You imagined the way but the driver takes a different way, you end up seeing things that you never had in mind. Well, that is the best analogy I can make. Call me a Lucas Apologist if you wish, I like the Prequels.

I liked how Episode I established that the Villain was once a kid that was thrust into an order that he had no control over. Being torn from the familiarity of the only family he ever had can have a huge impact. Episode II showed us the result of that, he is off-balance and desperate to cling to any form of love and attachment and that he will do what it takes to keep that with him. It is just a matter of pushing him in the wrong direction to make him think he can rule the galaxy. Anakin and Padme’s conversation near the waterfalls was more than just a fluff piece of romance but a hint at Anakin’s beliefs.

Episode III is by far the most note-worthy in the saga. It is simply about how a good person can justify his bad, even evil, actions and become something he never started out to be. Some felt that the whole "keeping his wife from dying" reason was just is not enough to turn Anakin into the badass Darth Vader we know and love. I say they have never been in love that deeply. The Duel (captial "T", capital "D") lived up to the expectations I had, it was fast, furious and emotional. I always said it had half the emotion of this movie fight, then I would like the movie. It does, I did.

For me it was never the be-all-end-all of the saga. It was simply the bridge from the first trilogy to the prequels, or from the prequels to the original trilogy, or vice-versa, how ever you wish to see them. It was fun, it was dark, it was exciting. It was great and thrilling to see all that mythology that I imagined up on the screen. Once again, not exactly how I imagined it, but it all made sense. And the kid in me understood that.

VI. Influence on the Weak-minded - The Northern Arapaho Movie Maker

I want to make the next Star Wars movie. I want to create and cast the Jedis and Sith, to wield a lightsaber on screen, to fight alongside Obi-Wan, Han Solo, the Ewoks. I want to partake of the Universe. But now being long-past the release of Revenge of the Sith, I cannot. But I can create something just as cool, just as epic, just as memorable and expansive. Why not? Star Wars allowed me to imagine anything, to believe I was not hindered or locked down to a prescribed set of aesthetic beliefs. I could be whatever I want in a movie. My Arapaho-ness has no bearing on that.

I believe that no matter what you think or heard about George Lucas, he has left his mark on the way we make movies. Good or bad, he has pushed the technology forward. His pushing of the digital motion picture making has led to the industry taking a serious look at independent movie makers. It also has led to more affordable equipment. His pioneering of non-linear, digital editing has completely reformed the editing process.

I have heard the complaints that unless it is on celluloid film that it is not a "real" movie. Tell that to the millions of movie makers uploading their masterpieces on YouTube. They like to say that digital movie making is not organic like movie making on film. There is nothing "Organic" about the celluloid film strip. It is chemically manufactured using petroleum (which comes from all the oil we buy or drill for). Same can be said for digital. What counts is that it makes the adventure of movie making accessible to everyone. And it makes the imagined adventures of an eight-year-old Northern Arapaho real.

Movie makers want independence. Whether we like to admit it or not, George Lucas has that. He has become a very independent movie maker. His has built a company, makes movies and money all without a Hollywood studio influencing the final product. This is another inspiration for me. To be in control completely of the movies I make.

The primary influence remains that I can try making genre movies; the sci fi epic, the kung fu action movie, the introspective drama, the dark comedy, even a dreaded western. Because of Star Wars, I feel I do not have to make the beads and feather docu-drama that explains where it all went wrong between Natives and European immigrants and how that effects us decades later. I could. But I don’t have to. Lucas, Rodriguez, Branagh have all imparted their visions, passion and knowledge of movie making through their various films. As a Northern Arapaho movie maker, I too want to push the boundaries of what is. That is the main influence of Star Wars that I continue to hold dear.

Conclusion

So that is that. Call me an Apologist. Go ahead. I don’t mind. I’ll wait....

Done? Good.

That is the influence that seeing Star Wars had on me as a kid. To some it is just a movie, to others it is nigh-on religion. For me it was the catalyst to finding my first, best destiny. I cannot imagine a world without a Star Wars Movie in it. I cannot imagine that no one else could have made Star Wars.

But I know, that because of Star Wars, I can imagine....

The End

with thanks to Christian Cuba who asked the above....

No One Ever Sees Arapahos

On Margaret Coel’s Fictional Representation of the Northern Arapaho

Part One: Introduction
When I viewed Orson Welles’ last completed film, "F For Fake" I was struck at one portion of the film and the issues it raises on the presentation of the unreal as real. More specifically, how Welles presented information and relied heavily on his audiences’ reaction to the information as truth. Thus, setting up the viewer’s ego as the fall guy in a filmic magic trick I had never seen before.

This ran accord of my own line of thoughts on Native American depiction in media and Native self-representation and first-voice. The film, a self-described "essay film", touched on a theory of my own concerning the "Authorship of Expertise" in art. I made the connection of this authorship in the representation of Native American cultures, presenting the unreal as real, which is perfectly reflected in the Wind River Mystery Series written by Margaret Coel.

This article began as a review of Coel’s book "Eye of the Wolf" but has since expanded as I found I had much more to write about the series as a whole and the misrepresentations it contains. Also, of how that Authorship of Expertise almost allows for no other representation to be taken as true as Coel’s books, thus it expanded beyond mere review.

I will also try note comparisons between Coel’s fiction and the non-fiction work of Dr. Jeffery Anderson’s "One Hundred Year of Old Man Sage" to gauge how different each approach is and to compare depictions between an actual Northern Arapaho’s life and the fictional lives on Coel’s Wind River Reservation. I also, note Sherman Alexie’s review of Ian Frazier’s "On the Rez", another book by a non-Native on Native American reservation life. It is the book "Invisible Natives" by Armando Jose Prats that helped firm up my ideas on this subject and I will refer to all three writings throughout.

I will admit right here that I had stopped reading Coel’s Wind River Mysteries after her "The Shadow Dancer". Mainly, because I felt that more and more she was beginning to write less and life about the people and communities of the Wind River. Though at the beginning of the series I had more than a passing interest in the novels since they are set on the Wind River Indian Reservation in west central Wyoming. I was born and raised on the Wind River Reservation and spent most of my adult life there, leaving in 1999 to pursue a film making career. So, my experience in reading "Eye of the Wolf", while specific to me, seems to illustrate the complex problem of Native self-representation in the media.

I will begin this series with a review of the book "Eye of the Wolf" (2005) before delving into the representations (Or rather, misrepresentations) of the Northern Arapaho people within the series entire and how it connects to the growing problem of commodification of Native American imagery and culture and how it lends to usurping Native American first-voice through the taking Native identity. Also, I will explore how the Authorship of Expertise allows this misrepresentation to be accepted as truth.

A reviewer on a website called Dancing Badger (Which reviews several Indian Reservation mysteries and the growing genre) remarked on the Coel mysteries that the books are more an intellectual exercise of the author rather than a well-crafted genre piece. After reading "Eye of the Wolf", I am inclined to agree.

Margaret Coel herself is an anthropologist having published a book on the Southern Arapaho leader Left Hand. But for me, being a learned anthropologist does not equate a good mystery writer and certainly not make one the spokesperson for an entire tribe of Indians. So, let us take a look at the book "Eye of the Wolf" itself before connecting it to the larger theme of Native self representation.

On Eye of the Wolf
The mystery in the eleventh book of her series concerns the discovery of three slain Indian men at the site of the Bates Battle, which has significance in Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshoni tribal history on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

The battle took place on July 4, 1874 in which the US Calvary and Shoshoni scouts found an Arapaho encampment and attacked it. This was in retaliation for earlier violence and attacks on white settlements in the area prior. Later evidence suggested that this camp of Arapahos had nothing to do with that earlier violence. In Coel’s story, the battle is still a sore point for the tribes after so many years and this is the driving thrust of the mystery.

Coel’s literary hero, Father John O’Malley discovers the three bodies frozen in poses at the battle site after a cryptic phone message for "the Indian Priest" sends him out there to look, rather than calling the police. He almost preternaturally realizes that the bodies are arranged to look like old photographs from the Bates Battle aftermath and knows instantly that this will somehow touch off an intertribal war on the reservation. This sends him on the trail of the murderer of the three men, identified as Shoshoni tribal members. (The Arapaho’s "traditional" enemies, according to several characters in "Eye of the Wolf" and the tribe they share the Wind River Reservation with.)

Coel’s other literary creation, Arapaho lawyer, Vicky Holden makes an unsteady entrance into the story defending a young Arapaho man named Frankie Montana, who, in a striking coincidence, is accused of beating the same three Shoshoni men prior to the start of the story. Thus, he becomes the story’s only prime suspect in the murders after the body of a forth Shoshoni man, once again discovered by O’Malley following another phone message, is found at the battle site.

The two threads lie together uneasily. They are only connected to each other by the character of Frankie Montana, an obvious red herring; the young man is so devious, callow and rude that you just know that he is not the killer. The fact that every other character in the book thinks he is, only added to my suspicion that he was really innocent of the crimes.

What I like about a good mystery, think Christie’s work, is how there is more than one prime suspect to confuse things. There are several characters in the story that have the motive and opportunity to kill the victim. Coel’s "Eye of the Wolf" and even after eleven novels does not have that type of experienced layering. She seems to be getting by on her knowledge of Arapaho history. It seems lazy to me.

One other thing that bothered me is that for some reason, every character in the book, in addition to saying Frankie Montana is guilty, thinks the murders will incite some sort of "war" between the Northern Arapaho and the Eastern Shoshoni and it is referenced to often (As often as Frankie Montana’s guilt.). And this serves as the means to propel events forward. O’Malley, determined to prevent "war" then begins to investigate and get answers that propel his story arc forward.

Vicky Holden does nothing. She sits in a holding pattern for most of the novel up until the anti-climactic ending when the suspect needs a hostage, and seems more a reiteration than a revelation. Of late, the series is becoming more and more about Father John O’Malley and his trials and triumphs in and among the people of the Wind River Reservation overshadow the life and loves of Vicky Holden, who along with the people and communities of the Wind River serve only to elevate Father John to savior status.

The emotional hurtles they both have to jump through seem unresolved after eleven novels. O’Malley is a recovering alcoholic who feels the need to drink whenever the pressure is on. Yet, he still faces the unpaid bills and unreturned phone calls and meetings he never seems to attend and a provincial assistant who will last only the duration of the novel.

Holden has now been relegated to an "Indian Princess" role. She comes from a broken marriage to an Arapaho man and is untrusting of Indian men. Untrusting even the man she is in a relationship with but seems to trust the white O’Malley implicitly. While their unspoken attraction to each other seems to be behind them in "Eye of the Wolf" they never seem to move on from their starting points in resolving their own personal issues that stem from the very first novel "The Eagle Catcher". And as if to prove the story does not need her, the two main characters of this series do not meet until more than half way through the book.

Holden, for most of the book, does nothing but question her loyalties. Does she continue to support her tribe in defending Frankie Montana or does she take on "more important cases" with her new Lakota law partner? She also questions her relationship with that same law partner, the ubiquitously named Adam Lone Eagle. She does not bring any new information to O’Malley’s investigation of the crimes and serves only to point the glaring spotlight of guilt at Frankie Montana. Otherwise, she seems distracted by her relationship with Lone Eagle.

This lacking narrative left me uninterested in the killer’s identity. First and foremost, because of the characterization of the lead suspect Frankie Montana, the actual murderer is telegraphed in the scenes of its’ introduction. A white supremacist thread, which gives the story a sense of currency due to the fact that a major church of white supremacy has moved to Wyoming, is introduced and basically goes nowhere. Father O’Malley’s interaction with a ex-girlfriend of one of the supremacists seems to come from an entirely different book. This leads to the bigger weaknesses of the book, the final act and the motive of the killer.

In the later chapters, Holden eventually discovers relevant information "off-screen", as it were, as Coel does not bother to follow Holden within the narrative as she does her own investigation and uncovers new information pertaining to the killer’s identity. Holden just shows up at the end when O’Malley needs her to fill in the pieces. A feminine Tonto (who did all the dirty work), to O’Malley’s Lone Ranger (who did nothing but peep in windows). Then, together they race off toward the face off with the killers. When the plot is revealed and reason for the killings is brought to light, the information is so wrapped up in Whiplash-ian histrionics that all that was missing was the moustache-twirling.

Besides a very weak reason for the murders (So weak that a single sentence summation by O’Malley near the end sounded just plain silly.), the killers acted so out of character at that point from what was established for much of the book. One actually begins to monologue like a comic book villain that thinks he has the hero trapped and stupidly reveals all before ineptly trying to kill the hero. Speaking of comic books, the fact that a character is suddenly "bat-shit insane" is too easy a narrative convention overused in turning heroes into villains that it smacks of creative laziness and a lack of originality.

While Coel lies these threads together awkwardly, it is her characterization of Father John O’Malley that is the strongest point of the series. It is also the biggest hurtle in representing the Northern Arapaho people. Her writing for O’Malley has gotten stronger mainly because Coel writes him the most. I have noticed that a slew of secondary Arapaho characters, such as Chief of BIA Police Art Banner, and the Saint Francis housekeeper, have all but vanished from the series in favor of O’Malley’s turmoil. In "Eye of the Wolf" the housekeeper now only leaves notes for O’Malley at dinner time, the only indication she is ever there.

Though one has to admit, Coel does write him well. A scene in "Eye of the Wolf" where O’Malley connects with his new assistant (Who may stick around another novel) over their shared need to seek failure which gives them an excuse to return to alcohol is the strongest of the book and possibly the series.

But as Spokane author Sherman Alexie points out in his review of Ian Frazier’s "On the Rez"; "He almost convinces us that he’s writing about the ...Sioux, about their rez, when, in reality, he’s mostly writing about himself, about his feelings, about his real and imagined pain." I find that here in Coel’s fiction about the Northern Arapaho. She is first and foremost, writing about O’Malley’s experiences among the Northern Arapaho.

A weak narrative and motive reminded me of why I had stopped reading the series, though I should have a great interest in it. It was mostly inaccurate representations of my people, the problems they face and the lives they live, and of the land we live on. It also served to remind me of the problems this series has in perpetuating these misrepresentations while serving an uninteresting plot.

It was with trepidation that I picked up Coel’s "Eye of the Wolf". First of all, I feared that because of my past experience reading the tedious plots based on the reservation I grew up and lived several years of my adult life on now seem wildly inaccurate. Secondly, because of my experience as a Northern Arapaho man who has since been awakened to non-Native representations of Native Americas in the media. I feel that more and more the Native perspective is being taken away from Native Americans who are just as capable, if not better, in doing this than the establishment.

Coming Soon: Part Two: On the Series