Films for the Trump Years, Part 18: Songs My Brothers Taught Me

 

 

               A great deal of this series to date has focused on the Black experience in America, specifically the ongoing legacies of racism and slavery. Given how foundational the genocide of African-American slavery is to the development of this country, one of its two fundamental Original Sins, this is not unreasonable. However, it is equally important for me to make the time to reflect on the legacy of our second Original Sin, the genocide of Native Americans that began with the first arrivals of Columbus and other white explorers, even before the introduction of slavery, and that continues, unchecked, to this day. Persistent poverty and lack of federal funding and support, along with continued efforts to desecrate Native lands with abominations like the Keystone Pipeline, are the most current iterations of this mistreatment, which in turn have directly worsened the effects of crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, with the Navajo Nation in particular seeing some of the worst infection and mortality rates in the world.

                In large part, my delay in being able to tackle this topic stems from a profound lack of access to proper Native American representation in media; as woefully underrepresented as Black, Hispanic, and Asian-American persons are within the upper ranks of both government and cultural industries, Native American representation is even worse: the list of registered Native Americans who have served in Congress is woefully short, and it was only last year that the first two Native American women were sworn into office. Thought she didn't win her race, in that same election cycle Paulette Jordan in Idaho became the first ever Native American woman to be nominated by a major party for a governorship.

                This invisibility and erasure of Native Americans within American culture and politics extends to film as well, where the most well-known and lauded films with prominent depictions of Native American life tend to be White-oriented affairs like Dances With Wolves or Little Big Man, to say nothing of the looooong history of bigotry within the Western genres. As a result, it is extremely hard to find films made by Native American artists and starring Native American performers, since they never get widespread releases with big studio publicity and are usually not widely available on services like Netflix where most people watch their movies.

                Thankfully, I was finally able to procure access to one of the more highly-regarded Native-America-centered films of recent years, the 2015 directorial debut of Chloé Zhao. Though Zhao herself is Chinese, the film features an all-Native cast and is largely focused on a grounds' eye view of daily life on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota, home to the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

                Taking place over the course of, perhaps, a few weeks within one of the reservation's towns, the film is essentially a slice-of-life exploration of how the lives of our two main characters, the young siblings Jashuan and John Winters, slowly begin to shift as a result of the death of their father in a fire. Over the course of the funeral and its related scenes, we learn that their father had had a long history of womanizing, regularly divorcing and re-marrying; he apparently had a total of 25 children by 9 different woman, most of whom Jashuan and John seem to have either only previously met in passing, or had never met at all. Slowly, the connections between these half-siblings, with wide age and experience gaps between them all, begin to open up new possibilities for Jashuan and John, both of whom seem to be just wandering through life at the beginning.

                The tragedy that sparks this is entirely random and cruel, mocking any effort to make sense of it. There is no closure, no body to be found. No proof is provided whether or not the fire was an accident or something more sinister. It simply happened, a father is gone, and the dispersed pieces of him left in the form of his many children have to decide for themselves what to make of it all. There will be no moment of clarity, of promise that everything will get better for these people. Just the resolve to keep living.

                It is to the film's credit that these metatextual ways in which the events of the film reflect on the general struggles of Native American communities are never directly referenced. They are simply there for the observant viewer. The land of the reservation itself appears dusty, dry, and very flat, stretching out in all directions. The desolate views are a constant reminder that few of the Tribes that still exist live anywhere near there actual, historical lands; all modern reservations are the remnants of generations upon generations of efforts to deliberately uproot Native communities and force them from one place to another. Not only that, it was also very much intentional that Tribes be removed, forcefully if need be, from any place with valuable resources or good farming land; they were to be shunted off to the barest, bleakest places imaginable, so that any land that offered a perceived bounty could be offered up to white settlers.

                Christianity and alcoholism play hugely important roles in the narrative as well. Jashuan and John's mother talks often of how she is trying to get over drinking by committing herself to the local church, to the point where her oldest child, a full brother to Jashuan and John who is currently serving out a prison sentence, snidely remarks that she better make sure she "doesn't use God as another man to abandon her kids for."

                Alcoholism, like many other diseases, is another legacy of colonialism that still plagues Native communities to this day, where deliberate efforts in the past to spread addiction within Tribes so as to weaken them mirror the same ways other drugs have been used against Black Americans in more recent decades, often in combination with our prison-industrial complex that seeks to use the "justice" system as another tool of oppression. At the beginning of the film, we learn that John already has a bit of a reputation with the police for hustling alcohol between towns, since it's one of the easiest ways for him to make a quick buck. Christianity, too, is something grafted on to tribal existences, as it was forced on Tribe after Tribe through forced conversions and even the kidnapping and indoctrination of Native children, right up into the 20^th century.

                And yet, they are still here, and they still live their lives, speak their languages, and endure. That alone is a miracle, but it also needs to be more actively seen and heard and felt amongst the rest of us if we are to finally break the systematic chains that continue to hobble and harm Native American communities. No true realization of justice will be complete until ALL of America's sins are accounted for.

                I assumed at the beginning of the film that the focus would be on Jashuan and her relationship with John and her mother. It quickly becomes clear that this is not the case. Both she and John are in places of deep uncertainty regarding their futures that the death of father only accentuates, and both have lessons to learn from the extended family they reestablish a connection with in the wake of the funeral. Some offer advice gleaned from their more advanced years, some offer money or concrete jobs, but all have something to teach these two about living on the reservation, and about the enduring beauty of their land, their tribe, and above all else their family, that they hadn't truly seen before.

                This is a film of quiet moments and seren beauty, tinged with the sadness of lives and existences that have been made as hard as possible by the callousness of the ghosts of the past. And yet their is a power and a nobility in surviving and making the most of it that cannot be forgotten. Watch more films like these, talk about them, and let's all commit to being truly inclusive in our calls for a better future.

-Noah Franc

Previously on Films for the TrumpYears:

Part 1- Selma

Part 2- Good Night, and Good Luck

Part 3- 13^th

Part 4- Get Out

Part 5- Chasing Ice/Chasing Coral

Part 6- The Big Short

Part 7- Human Flow

Part 8- Moonlight/Winter's Bone

Part 9- Black Panther

Part 10- Arrested Development

Part 11- Bowling for Columbine

Part 12- (T)error

Part 13- Angels in America

Part 14- Do The Right Thing

Part 15- All The President's Men

Part 16- Ken Burns' The Vietnam War

Part 17- Malcolm X

Star Wars, Duel of the Fates: Chapter Four- The Homeworld

**for previous chapters, please refer to the Table of Contents**

                The lines of starlight snapped back into a distant panorama of pinpricks across Kylo Ren's vision as his ship exited hyperspace, closing in on a planet that seemed to be almost completely covered by stormclouds. The guidance provided by the Holocron had taken his ship through nearly a dozen jumps of various lengths, some of them through nebulas and asteroid belts that were supposed to be unpassable, at least according to conventional navigational charts. Unless, he thought, you know the lone path that gets you through safely.

                The trip had been long enough to cool down the pressing irritation he'd had to endure right after he set out, after he'd had to listen to more of General Hux's petulant whining over his current excursion, as well as his decision to leave the Knights in place on Coruscant to protect High Command.

                "A leave of absence?? An indefinite leave of absence????" he'd sputtered, staring in open-mouthed shock at Kylo Ren across the command table of the Supremacy.

                "And in leiu of your power, or of proper soldiers, we are to place our security in the hands of those barbaric, blood-thirsty, half-lunatic Knights of yours??" he'd continued, beginning to stand up.

                "You will do as you're ordered, General," Kylo Ren had responded curtly, not even bothering to glance in his direction.

                "Beg your pardon, Sir, but need I remind you-"

                But what, exactly, Kylo Ren supposedly needed reminding of never managed to get out of Hux's mouth, because it was at that moment that Kylo sent him flying halfway across the bridge with a flick of his wrist. No further objections were raised after that.

                Those occasional moments when he could justify flinging Hux around starships like bags of Corellian marbles were among the only times, these days, when Kylo Ren felt something approaching happiness.

                As he got closer to the planet below- a planet that, he soon realized, he could find no official records of, and so couldn't even name yet- he could make out the swirls and shifting patterns of the clouds along its surface, sporadically turned translucent by blasts of lightning within that seemed to hold every color of the visible spectrum.

                Still being lead by the Holocron, sitting on a secure platform next to the controls, he followed the signals that came across his screen down below the level of the clouds, allowing him to see a landscape beneath that, in all directions, appeared completely blasted and utterly devoid of life. The entire planet reeked of the dark side. It was like descending into the deepest, heaviest ocean in the known universe. Every piece of his ship seemed to vibrate with its power.

                He was soon instructed to land his vessel on a craggy plateau overlooking a long valley, stretching out into the distance. A ways back from the edge stood a massive temple, not dissimiliar to the one on Mustafar in shape and structure. The key difference being, though, that temple on Mustafar had still appeared untouched and untainted by time, while this one looked like it had been repeatedly bombarded in one battle after another. Huge gaps, cracks, and holes all other the structure suggested great battles had taken place within, around, and above it. Opening the door of his ship and taking nothing other than his lightsaber and the Holocran, Kylo Ren contemplated it for a moment before making his way towards it, leaving his ship behind him.

                Slowly, he walked up the shattered steps through what remained of the entranceway. Not that being inside the remains of the temple made much difference; the ceiling at the very top had long since fallen away, leaving the interior open to the swirling, storm-filled sky above. Making his way to the center of the main chamber, or what was left of it, he placed the Holocron on the ground. Without his prompting, the lights within began to swirl and gather, and soon the image of Sidious was once again before him.

                Very good, Kylo Ren, spoke the voice. You now stand on the remains of Exegol, the birthplace of the Sith Order.

                "Exegol..." Kylo repeated quietly, looking around him again. So it was real. The supposed homeworld of the Sith had long ago passed into the realm of legend and myth, a place whispered about in the darkest parts of the galaxy, mentioned here and there in old texts, but something few still thought of as a real place. It seems he'd been as wrong about that as he had about the disappearance of Holocrons from the galaxy. It also explained why the dark side was stronger here than in any other place he'd yet seen.

                Sidious continued;

                Your trial shall begin without delay.

                Kylo nodded, "I figured as much. What do I have to do?"

                Deep in the nadir of the valley over which this temple stands, there is a unique red crystal to be found within its caves. These crystals were used to create the first Sith lightsabers. You are to descend to the base of the valley, retreive one of these crystals, and return with it to this temple. Then, you shall receive further instruction.

                Kylo waited a moment, but Sidious said nothing more after that. "Is that all? Find a rock and climb a mountain?"

                The figure smirked;

                Do not be so dismissive of this task, young one. In such a nexus of the dark side as this place, nothing is ever as it seems. I believe you will find much more than you bargained for in the depths of the valley.

                Go now. I will be waiting here, until you return.

                And with that, the figure dissolved into nothing, the Holocron below turning dark and cold once more.

                By the time Kylo neared the bottom of the valley, he'd lost track of how much time he'd spent on this barren rock. With the coud cover so absolute and unending, it's colors changing only with the occasional blast of lightning, it was impossible to tell the difference between day or night. The planet seemed to exist in a perpetual, red-tinged twilight. Even using the Force, trying to gain a sense of time passed proved impossible, so it hadn't taken long for Kylo to abandon his efforts entirely. As it was, the distance and difficulty in reaching the bottom proved even more taxing than he'd expected, his youth and physical fitness notwithstanding. Drawing on the dark side to give him strength, Kylo repeatedly pushed away any sense of exhaustion or hunger within himself, determined to get this first task over with as soon as possible.

                Any path that had once existed had been worn away with time, so he had to find his own winding way over the shards of rock that formed the ground and around the massive boulders that would occasionally appear, rather suddenly, out of the gloom before him.

                Eventually, however long it took him, the ground began to level, and glancing back at the way he came, he finally felt confident that he'd reached the very bottom of the valley. Before him stretched a pathway that seemed to stretch over the horizon, the sides of it pockmarked by holes that, he presumed, led to caves within the mountains. One of those openings, he decided, would be as good a place as any to begin looking for this crystal he was supposed to find. He sighted the one closest to him and set off in that direction.

                It was only in those moments before he reached the entrance of the cave that, for the first time, he began to sense the presence of something here other than himself. His scanners had immediately assumed the total absence of any form of organic life on the entire planet, and his additional senses via the Force had only confirmed this ever since he'd left his ship.

                He paused in his walking for a second, glancing around him a few times. He couldn't put his finger on it, but there was a growing sense in his mind that something was just about to look over his shoulder. Turning in its direction neither heightened nor lessened this sensation; the same feeling merely slipped over in the direction he was no longer looking the moment he turned its head. It was not nearly enough to actually frighten him, but he began to understand what Sidious had meant earlier.

                One way or another, he figured, the dark side would strike at him while he was here. He fully intended to be ready for it, whenever that moment came.

                Shaking off that concern for now, he continued into the mouth of the first cave opening. Standing in the entrance, it was clear that the darkness within was total, and, perhaps because of how strong the dark side was here, the Force was no help to him in trying to discern what lay within. For now, at least, he would have to stick to what his eyes could tell him.

                He pulled out his lightsaber and ignited it, the trio of lights casting a red glow into the space before him. The ground and walls seemed to be made of the same rust-colored stone as the outside, sharp and broken and craggy and jutting into the air at odd angles, making any walkway treacherous. Step by step, he slowly moved further into the cave, a winding hole that seemed to cut into and down before him.

                Once again, he could not maintain any sense of how long it took him to walk what, in his estimation, could not have been more than 20 meters, yet when he glanced back the entrance had already vanished around a corner. Looking back ahead, he started to glance around at the ground and walls for some sign of the crystal he was supposed to find.

                Eventually, perhaps with his eyes adjusting better to the red glow of everything, he began to see patches in the walls that reflected light slightly differently than the rest of the rocks around them; the glow of his lightsaber appeared slightly more metallic in these parts, and the more he got used to what this looked like, the more such patches he started to notice, all around him. Examining a sizeable spot on the wall nearest him, he made a fist and began drawing in the Force, creating a layer of telekinetic power around his clenched hand like the head of a mace.

                When he felt he'd gathered enough power, he struck directly into the rock before him, shattering it into a thousand pieces that flew out from the spot of impact. He had to close his eyes for a moment as a cloud of dust rose from the spot, and he kept them shut for a full 10 seconds as he waited for everything to settle. He then brushed his hair and face with his glove hand, opened his eyes, and waited once more for them to adjust to the light. The place where he'd struck was now a gaping hole in the cave wall, the ground around his feet littered with bits of broken rock, but also several pieces of various sizes of long, jagged-looking pieces that had that same glow about them he'd noticed before.

                Having now freed what must have been the required crystals from the stone, he examined them for a moment before selecting the sturdiest-looking one, and bent down to pick it up. But just as his fingers were about to close around it, a voice suddenly rang out behind him. A voice he'd truly believed he would never hear again.

                "Hey there, kiddo."

                Kylo Ren spun around, swinging his lightsaber so as to cast its light on the figure that, without warning, now stood just meters from him. In the glow of his blade, Kylo Ren saw his father. Han Solo.

                For a moment, neither spoke. Finally, Kylo recovered his voice.

                "You're dead. I killed you."

                "Naw, you don't say." the figure of his father, whatever it was, certainly had the tone and tenor of the legendary Solo sarcasm down pat.

                "Are you a ghost of some sort? Or are you just in my own mind?"

                "What do you think? C'mon, kid, I know you're smart."

                The more his mind turned it over, Kylo became more sure of the answer. His father was no Jedi, so this was no Force presence from beyond the grave. Couldn't be.

                "My head, then. Figures. What made you show up now? I killed you. I'm the reason Luke is dead and your wife has to hide on wayward planets like a gutter rat."

                "Yeah," Han responded, still in a tone of voice that suggested a chat more about the weather than about intergalactic war, "True. Very true. But you're still our son. You're still Luke Skywalker's nephew."

                Kylo gritted his teeth. He began to sincerely wish this was some sort of Force presence so that he could have the pleasure of killing Han Solo all over again.

                "Ben Solo is the past, dead and gone. And I am about to ascend to Sith. You have no hold over me, nor does Leia."

                "Jeez, Ben, she's still your mother. Show her some respect."

                "Enough!" Kylo wasn't going to waste another second on this nonsense. "I don't have time for your ignorance, your foolishness. Leave me be." With that, he turned back downwards to retreive the crystals.

                "You don't want to do that." The voice once again held him back, his finger just about to brush the stone.

                "Why?" he retorted, more amused than angry now, "because you won't be able to torment me anymore with your presence if I do become Sith?"

                "Because you have no idea what you'r going to do yourself if you keep this up," Han said, his voice now filled with sorrow. "That's why I'm here. And a part of you still knows that."

                For a second, Kylo hesitated. The figure that was his father just stood there, looking steadily into his eyes. Then a wave of revulsion welled up within him, and Kylo instantly hated himself for even that moment of doubt, crushing it beneath the iron will that was Kylo Ren.

                "Then that's one more part of me that needs to die," he said, and without another word, he reached back and grabbed the crystal off the ground.

                Instantly, the image of Han Solo vanished. At the same time, a shriek, carried on a fierce wind of power, swept up fro within the cave. Kylo immediately found himself realizing that these were no stale, ordinary crystals. After all the noise he'd made walking and crushing rocks, only now that he touched one of the Sith crystals did he finally feel that something had awakened. Not something alive- even now, there was no life to be sensed anywhere- but something eminently more powerful and frightening.

                It felt as if the planet itself was now stirring to come after him. He turned and quickly moved back towards the entrance, ignoring the jabs of the rock sharps stabbing into his feet and sides as he ran. The opening in the dark appeared before him, but before he reached it, a force like a gust of wind struck at him from behind, and he flew through it onto the valley floor beyond, crashing and rolling and cutting himself all over on the stone before he could finally stop himself.

                Blinking back the sweat and blood and dust that now poured down his face, Kylo looked back at the cave he'd been in just moments before. Even knowing that this was no mere animal, but some manifestation of the dark side, he had to work to convince himself that what he was seeing was real, and not some fantasy produced by his deluded and broken mind.

                Out of the cave poured black smoke, roiling and churning like streams of water, separating into rivers that snaked along the ground or tendrils that began to reach and twist through the air. Looking into the center of the maelstrom, he saw images and visions of every manner of horrific creature, a storm of claws and teeth and fists and anything else that could be used to rip or tear things to shreds. The images themselves were not nearly enough to unnerve him. What did unnerve him was the deep, almost subconscious sense of feral threat this apparition awoke within him.

                Kylo quickly got to his feet, activated his lightsaber, and began backing up as quickly as he could manage towards the incline he'd first come down, trying to both not trip over unseen rocks behind him and not be touched by...whatever these dark appendages reaching for him were. He knew, instinctively, beyond conscious thought, that falling into their grip would be his end.

                He tried swiping at a few of the shadowy lines on the ground, but his lightsaber merely passed through them, as though they really were nothing more than a gas. Backpedaling even faster now, the arms in the air began to move more directly towards him, and seemed to solidify, as if they were growing into their own form of flesh. Now, instead of aimless smoke, a dozen claws with impossible long talons and jaws with a protrusion of jagged teeth, all the same cloudy dark color, were reaching for him in unison.

                One arm shot out at him, its grip widening. Kylo waited until the last moment before ducking to the side, hearing a hissing sound as it whipped over his shoulder. A faceless mouth shot up from the ground at his leg, but he reacted instantly, pulling in the Force to leap up and backwards onto one of the prominent boulders marking the rise out of the valley.

                Landing catlike, his lightsaber extended out in his left hand, he glanced up just in time to see another of the claws lunging at him, mere meters away.

                It was too close, moving too fast, and his body reacted before he had even a moment to think. His arm snapped up, bringing his lightsaber up before his face right as the talons were about to close around his head-

                -and with a crackel of energy, slammed instead into his blade, halting in mid-air for just a moment before dissipating in a rush of wind around him, the now-smoky form retreating down the hill.

                Now, finally, Kylo Ren began to feel in control of things once more. Strange and dangerous this entity might be, but if it had to take physical form to harm him, then his lightsaber was enough to stop it. He looked down towards the many new arms now reaching up towards him, forming into new threats. Taking in the number and variety of new shapes that now collectively charged at him, still standing on the same promontory, he waited until the figures all seemed as solid and real as the stone beneath his feet, then lashed out with the Force. A crackling field of energy lanced out before him in all directions, striking the incoming foes at almost the same time, all of them instantly dissipating into shadow once more.

                Grinning, his confidence now fully back, Kylo leapt backwards back down to pathway he recalled from earlier, and continued backing slowly up the mountain, keeping his eye all the while on the writhing mass of shadow behind him.

                For a moment, it seemd as if the darkness was retreating backwards into the cave from which it had first appeared, the black smoke seeming to slowly roll down the slope, away from where Kylo was cautiously stepping back up.

                And then everything went straight to hell. With a sound unnervingly like a human scream, great columns of darkness erupted from seemingly every nook and corner of the rocks around them, an army of black arms reaching into the sky. Then, slowly, almost lovingly, they began to bend back towards the surface, reading directly for Kylo Ren.

                No more time to think. No more time to strategize or calculate. Kylo could only react. Drawing the Force into his limbs for strength, he leapt and bounded up the side of the hill, trying to keep just one step ahead of each wave of darkness seeking to strike him down. Once more, time and distance lost all meaning, as he could only focus on the narrow crest in the rocks above him where he'd first descended from his ship.

                He never knew, exactly, what caused him to trip at that moment, whether it was one of the tendrils catching his ankle or a protruding rock from the hillside. All he knew was that he was suddenly flipped forward, crashing to the ground and blinking back stars of pain that erupted inside his skull. His vision fuzzed over for an instance, and by the time he could clear his head, it was already too late. A tearing sensation burned through his side as one of the apparitions, this one in the form of a claw with three razor-sharp talons, ripped into him from behind, and he felt himself flung forward once more with the strength of the blow. At the same time, another hand struck him in the head, slashing down the right side of his face and catching his shoulder and upper breast as well.

                And then, in that instant, silence descended. His eyes shut against the searing pain of the wounds on his face and body, gasping for air. Kylo stretched out with every sense he had command of, but, inexplicably, could no longer feel any danger. Finally, after catching his breath enough, he opened his eyes and looked around him.

                Nothing. The gaping voids that had opened up in the earth around him were gone, with not so much as a single, displaced stone to suggest the ground had ever been disturbed. The sense of being watched, being followed, had vanished entirely, and for the first time since he'd arrived at this blasted world, he felt well and truly alone, as if everything up til now had been a mere dream of the Force.

                And yet, as the lines of fire that he acutely felt on his face and chest and the lines of blood that now began to color his clothing could attest, he knew he had not imagined it. Whatever had happened, he needed to get aid from his ship fast. Then, he would return to Sidious and demand answers. He didn't have time for any more games like this. Not anymore.