Crooked Arrows

The potential was there, ruined by weak dialog formulas, poor character development using 80's cheesy hero meets heroine hard to get rot as something that adds cultural depth, really? Then it turns into a lacrosse movie with script and scenes clearly someone lacking sports background of any kind, felt like one of those terrible after school specials of 1980's.

If you can survive the terrible direction, script & dialog, some good touchstones of Native American Indian Tribal Peoples are within, but felt belittled by unfocused script, unforced errors, and poor acting/direction by the 2 primary love interest characters especially (never saw either before nor since, so must not have been just me).

Of all people politically of Our Founding Fathers and early days referenced, choosing Ben Franklin to make 'the Bogey Man' of whites shows intent with the producers and/or director... Ben Franklin wanted to coexist with Native American Indian Tribal Peoples, not be at war at all... in part, his desire to make the turkey a focal point in colonial communities was to domestically cultivate turkey like chickens to take focus off killing bison, which involved violating Native American Indian Tribal Land Boundaries...Turkey cultivation would alleviate the pressure on white men hunting illegally on tribal lands, helping to keep the peace.

So omitting such fools as Custer and Andrew Jackson as easy and actual Bogey Men may seem 'edgy' to pick on Ben Franklin, but it revealed the hand of influence on script and final product had a propaganda agenda more than making a quality movie as their priority.

Sadly the fact throughout, painting Native American Indian Tribal Peoples as emotionally and intellectually stunted, prone to war and poorly educated subliminally in half the scenes (80's movies especially did that narrating white suburban teens and young adults, hyping cultural identity clashes, but a 2012 movie should know better than to paint a tribal communities as a monolith of immature malcontents and poorly informed as a whole, needing a half white metrosexual oiled male model to save their village?

I'm white, and that's a subliminal formula that whites are the saviors... Gandhi, Tutu, Mandela, Confucius, Douglas, MLK...long list of non-white amazing noble & benevolent humans that stood up to England's Royal Family, The Last of the Roman Empire...who Our Founding Fathers only defeated BECAUSE OF Ben Franklin.

It was England's failed policies regarding Native American Indian Tribal peoples in the first place that caused the problems, seeing the indigenous peoples as "non-human" without Magna Carta rights, so no, if Ben Franklin remained loyal to Royal Family, we were going to be a UK colony to this day (do your research; I'm not joking...WW Brand, The First American, explains quite well), in which case, our current caste system of implied race privilege would be fully anchored by CAUCASIAN Royal Family mandates, placing tribal communities as 'primates' per their terms, meaning NO LAND RIGHTS AT ALL, NO TREATIES.

So this Ben Franklin slip is reflective of that Rupert Murdoch Mossad subliminal messaging to keep America stumbling.

And it shows throughout, plodding through scenes of fabricated controversies that belittle the real controversies.

The reviews going more than 7 (if you're Native American Indian AND love lacrosse, your personal connection might cause momentary lapse of reason to be generous, but even with such deep connection, no way a sane human goes 8+ on this trainwreck, and a 10?! There are a few '10' movies, perhaps 200 tops '10' ranked flicks ever made. They are the litmus.

This movie is well below half of a '10' score, and I'm being generous for mostly just recognition of Native American Indian Tribal Peoples.

I'm just not so sure bad movies about important topics help, so 4 feels generous to be honest.

It's like if you run a real business in the real world, then go home watching American Apprentice TV show... Dump's Tv show had very little resemblance to reality how business works.. being further evidence they knew nothing about the subject matter (the premise of looking for 'who to fire!' until you're down to just one means your company is by design happy about high turnover so a megalomaniac narcissist can fire employees would result in a company resembling the magaclown show we just witnessed still hanging around like a bad wart that won't go away.).

Just too many mistakes by choice on script and dialogue to go higher for me.

Joe Logan (Brandon Routh) is a local boy who's trying to make his mark. He wants to negotiate a land deal with a casino owner. In order to make it happen, he must get the agreement from the tribal council. In return he is forced to coach the local Native high school lacrosse team.

Brandon Routh has never been one of my favorite actors. Ever since Superman, I have seen nothing but stiff acting from him. In a way, he's perfect for Superman, but he makes a terrible Clark Kent. He's definitely no Christopher Reeve. I'm willing to accept Brandon's limitation here. It's a workable cliché filled family/sports movie. Chelsea Ricketts plays his plucky sister. While he's the coach, she wants to play. Like many sports movie, the final game is too long and too predictable. But it has enough feel good moments to make this work.

"Crooked Arrows" is one of those movies that even if you know almost nothing about the sport of Lacrosse you get involved in the game so much so that you might just find yourself yelling at the screen and that is part of "The Formula" that works so very well for movies about sports.

BUT

If you start watching this movie thinking that "The Formula" is all there is to it, get prepared for a BIG Wake-up call.

This movie has managed to twist Native culture, Traditions, History and even Language all together so expertly that you are not only being entertained but being educated at the same time.

Saying that this movie is an emotional roller coaster would be akin to saying that Tecumseh was a great warrior. Both are major understatements.

I'm not going to give anything away here because I really believe that potential viewers should just watch and ENJOY this movie from start to finish without knowing more than what is in the synopsis.

Probably the biggest compliment I can pay the movie is by saying, "I'm Dave Furlotte and I'm a Crooked Arrow."

My husband, my cousin and I really loved this movie. Being native we especially enjoyed the cultural aspects that we know so well. The music was very familiar to us. We are happy that all people will have a chance to enjoy the wonderful story, fabulous acting, and beautiful scenery. This is definitely a feel good movie for all. I am looking forward to buying it when it comes out on DVD. I would show it to my class. There are so many things that they could learn from this movie. I am also sure that my students and all movie goers can relate to the relationships and other aspects of the story. I hope everyone goes to see this movie. There is something for everyone to enjoy. Enjoy !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Clunky acting and an unbelievably predictable plot