Navajo Blues

We saw this movie for free as a promo video, and after watching it we all vowed to never speak its name again.

This movie had so many problems I don't know where to start. The plot relies heavily on coincidences, often preposterous ones; I don't want to spoil any of the plot, but the way two of the characters are thrown together in close quarters is just wholly unbelievable. The obligatory throw-guy-through-pane-of-glass moment looks pretty much obligatory and gratuitous, and the oh-so-significant soundtrack songs are intrusive at best and would've been better suited to an '80s teen romance. The script is poorly written enough to make Irene Bedard, normally a great actress, seem wooden. If you just want a good action movie, there are hundreds of better movies to choose from. And if you're looking for a good movie about Navajo people, try the independent documentary "Return of Navajo Boy" instead.

The best part of this movie is Mr. Donaldson's character Robert. Featuring such amazing lines as:

It's a witch, man.

It's a witch that killed those kids.

You can't catch no witch, man.

I told you it was a witch, man.

That's sick, man.

If Barry isn't enough for you there's still the brilliant soundtrack! What about the dynamite? And that magical exploding car? Almost too much awesome to pack into 90 minutes.

As a non-American Indian living and working in the Navajo Nation, I thought it would be interesting to see a film supposedly relevant to the people I was working with. Boy was I disappointed. The Navajo Nation Police as they are portrayed in this film make me cringe, not to mention the Navajo culture and people. This movie is sadly one large stereotype, and as most stereotypes is greatly off the mark. This film is a blemish on the career of a wonderful actress (Irene Bedard) {Irene- Why did you participate in this?}. If I recall correctly, this film was not even shot on the rez- it was shot in Utah or Nevada or something.

I really liked the performances and characterizations of the Wyako sisters, but this film just doesn't work. The end of the film puts forward the very problem that everyone was trying to avoid at the beginning of the film, but nothing was resolved. Irene Bedard and Charlotte Lewis were good enough in their roles that they should have gotten a TV series, but this film is way too cheesy to earn that honor. It's loaded with action movie clichés, such as an overturned vehicle that explodes for no apparent reason, throwing people through glass for no good reason (and no offer to pay for it from the cop, either). It's pretty much Bedard and Lewis and some of the other Native American characters that make the film worth watching, but the excess cheese makes the film disappointing. They needed a film with a better, more plausible plot that isn't so full of coincidences and action movie money shots.