MovieChat Forums > Smoke Signals (1998) Discussion > How Do We Forgive Our Fathers

How Do We Forgive Our Fathers

posted 16 years ago by TemporaryOne-1
8 replies | jump to latest

The ending of this film gets me everytime, everytime, because of that poem and the music and the bridge and the water and how do we forgive our Fathers...

Here is an mp3 of the ending, with Thomas reciting the poem and Ulali's glorius hymnal chant streaming through the words...

http://tinyurl.com/2rbahs

How do we forgive our Fathers?
Maybe in a dream
Do we forgive our Fathers for leaving us too often or forever
when we were little?

Maybe for scaring us with unexpected rage
or making us nervous
because there never seemed to be any rage there at all.

Do we forgive our Fathers for marrying or not marrying our Mothers?
For Divorcing or not divorcing our Mothers?

And shall we forgive them for their excesses of warmth or coldness?
Shall we forgive them for pushing or leaning
for shutting doors
for speaking through walls
or never speaking
or never being silent?

Do we forgive our Fathers in our age or in theirs
or their deaths
saying it to them or not saying it?

If we forgive our Fathers what is left?

[–] Chilibeans 16 years ago

I hear you. I have only seen this movie once and I loved it. However I swore I would never watch it again after that scene. I swear to god I was sobbing so bad I didn't think I would stop.

[–] fredpaii 12 years ago

Chilibeans on Wed Apr 30 2008 12:31:46
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I hear you. I have only seen this movie once and I loved it. However I swore I would never watch it again after that scene. I swear to god I was sobbing so bad I didn't think I would stop.

That's beautiful. It got me too.

[–] MnemonicDevice 12 years ago

Yes, absolutely! This is where, for me, the movie really shines, transcending culture and speaking to the kinds of feelings that men around the world struggle with.

[–] Razzbar 12 years ago

It was really something. I'd like to know which river we see in the scene, but it was quite effective as the "river of life", symbolically. For me, anyhow.

And, it got me thinking -- in my sixties, at that, about whether I have some unresolved issues with my own father to forgive, now that he's passed...

All the way through the movie, the audience knew that it was "that kind of movie", another resentful son reconciling his past... been done before, a universal theme, now being told from a new perspective.

[–] chas437 12 years ago

Agreed, the ending of this film is absolutely beautiful and is in many ways a revelation. It gives closure to this wonderful film, and no doubt has meaning for a great many young Native Americans who struggle with the issues in this film on a day to day basis. Indeed, it had meaning for all humanity.

Why aren't more films like this made??? As you say, because the story of this film is told through Native American eyes, we get a unique perspective on what might otherwise be a saomewhat trite plot.

Beautiful little film.

[–] Molly-31 12 years ago

I think that is the Coeur D'Alene River. There has recently been a lawsuit against the mining companies that fscked it up, and actions by the U.S. Govt and the Coeur D'Alene Nation to clean it up.

http://www.cdatribe-nsn.gov/cultural/Environment.aspx

You've got me?! Who's got you?!

[–] toe_jam_on_toast 12 years ago

This bit always makes me cry as Im adopted and a Lost Bird but my real dad? I miss him and have forgiven him for giving me up.

EDIT....Heres a quote I love that describes how I can be about being adopted :)

"I sit and cry, but nobody comes. I reach out to hold, but there's no one to hold. I yell, I scream, but nobody's listening. I fight, I am angry, but I struggle to go on. I walk through life, walking in other peoples' shadows. I try not to be seen, to be seen is to be judged, to be judged brings pain. The pain is real, but I'm not quite sure why? You see I'm Indian, but I've been raised white! Adopted at the age of two, condemned to living between two worlds. Growing up considered to be a 'savage' by one world and by the other world an 'apple'. The lost generation, lost between two worlds, accepted only so far into both, but why? Why have I been placed in this situation, why was I sentenced to this way of life? Who am I? And how can I get back to where ever I came from?"

Martin Tetzlaff, personal memories

"Forget acting. It's all about rock 'n' roll."
Brendan Fraser

[–] [email protected] (1292) 6 years ago

This poem was the ONLY good part of the movie for me.