Good Sense Of Humor
The Exiles (Milestone/Oscilloscope) is the archival release of the year. Kent Mackenzie’s independently produced 1961 drama (when independent cinema was the realm of mavericks and dreamers working in the margins, rather than studio subsidiaries and major actors looking for a challenge) chronicled the lives of urban American Indians (all of them non-actors drawing from their own lives) on the Bunker Hill area of Los Angeles over one long, alcohol-lubricated night. There’s no uplifting message here and the internal monologues that accompany their wanderings speak of desires and anxieties and disappointments that appear doomed to repeat themselves. But there is also something singular and specific about these people and the culture they have created within the city: Mackenzie’s portrait may be fiction but this world is very real. Mackenzie developed the story and wrote the dialogue with his cast and they communicate an honesty and pain and devastating disconnection even while putting on a happy-go-lucky face. The two-disc set also features four short films by Mackenzie, clips from Thom Andersen’s documentary “Los Angeles Plays Itself” (which brought new attention to the forgotten film), documentary shorts about the Bunker Hill neighborhood and a radio interview with Sherman and Charles Burnett among the supplements.
And then there is my contribution. Milestone’s Dennis Doros wanted Sherman Alexie’s commentary on the disc. The Seattle author and filmmaker (he wrote Smoke Signals, based on his stories, and wrote and directed The Business of Fancydancing) “presented” the film when Milestone restored the film and released to theaters around the country (the film’s long-awaited theatrical premiere) and had a unique perspective on the film. A Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian born and raised on the Spokane Indian Reservation, he had plenty to share about his experiences and observations and the screen representation of Indians in American films. I was asked to play moderator on the commentary and interview Alexie for an audio extra. I agreed. Ego aside, I had listened to and reviewed hundreds of commentary tracks and wanted to see what it was like from the other side. It was a learning experience. What I thought was good preparation turned out to be a mess of disorganized notes and thoughts when it came to actually engaging the film. Alexie proved to be a natural when it came to picking out telling details and talking about tribal differences and cultural specifics that fill the details of scenes. I, meanwhile, was rifling through notes trying to dig out a question or piece of production history to hold up my end. What I soon realized is that this kind of commentary, the part I was responsible for, needs to be scripted like a speech, even if it’s just a series of bullet points and notes for further discussion. The reviews (see below for a list of links) have been kind to the commentary and have correctly cited Alexie’s enlightening observations as a worthy complement to the film, and when I finally listened to the track I found that even my contribution turned out all right, no home run but hardly the foul ball I feared. But I do know that I’d love another shot at a commentary track. Next time, I’ll really be prepared.
One final note: It’s also a great week for The Stranger, the Seattle alternative weekly that I recently began writing for. Sherman has been a contributor to The Stranger, Sean Nelson is a former editor for The Stranger and still periodically contributes pieces and Humpday name checks The Stranger.
A few notable reviews of Milestone’s DVD of The Exiles:
New York Magazine (Richard Brody)
L.A. Times (Sam Adams)
Boston Phoenix (Peter Keough)
IFC (Michael Atkinson)
TCM (David Sterritt)
DVD Talk (David Walker)
Digitally Obsessed (Note to Mark Zimmer: not a Native American myself, pretty much German/Swedish stock with a little Dutch, Irish and English.
DVD Beaver
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