A Thousand Roads

"A Thousand Roads" is a beautiful movie, capturing the fact that many if not all people struggle everyday with one foot in the traditional world of their ancestry and the other foot in the chaos of the western world.

Isn't there a war going on right now with pressures such as the above a key component of the desire to fight back? People are struggling everywhere with what they've been told the world should be, and the opposite staring them right back?

Took off 1 point because it was too short!!!!

We want more, we want more!

This movie is sentimental and banal. Mainly because the screenplay is so bad, very condescending and dull. It seems amazing Eyre could ever have been involved with this movie---a simple look at complex issues and lives. The humor and quirkiness of Eyre's films is totally missing. The music is fine, but can't save the story. The actors seem to be struggling against stories they can't believe. There might as well be American Flags waving and rippling now and then. A Weirdly blah movie. Upsetting in its full tilt romanticism. Eyre's series on PBS are terrific and the stories are real and good and Smoke Signals is an amazing movie. So this is quite a shock.

The biggest flaw in this piece is that it is too short. Each segment could have been expanded just a few minutes to give more detail of how each segment's subject ("hero") improves her/his situation by connecting with the Traditional roots of her/his culture. The photography is breathtaking; the music superb; the story line solid.. It's just about 15 - 20 minutes too short. Well worth buying if you can get the DVD.. If it isn't for sale to the general public, it ought to be. A Thousand Roads is a classic without clichés or focussing on negatives such as alcohol or drug use, & it's almost brand new. I love being wowed, & this piece wows me. I rattle my tongue for A Thousand Roads.

I also liked Smoke Signals, but for an educational film, this was pretty edgy. Willing to address controversial issues. For example, up in Alaska, the whole issue of food. I was very impressed by this film. As a person from the dominant culture, I felt nurtured as a human being after seeing it, it fed my human spirit.

The Peruvian Shaman and the girl in Alaska were my favorite characters in the movie. I liked the fact that they mostly used non-actors, and I believe these two had no previous acting experience.

I just want to add that shamanism is alive and well, in New Age communities in the U.S. and Europe; in the Andes and Amazon; and from Siberia to Tibet and Vietnam (the Hmong). Spiritual healing is very powerful.