Must See Movie...

i must have seen a different film!!

Great Film overall

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Istvan Kolnhofer is quite correct when he says this is "One of the most important "lost" independent films ever".I have little to add to the other reviewers other than this film is right on my top shelf next to _Fight Club_ and _Aguirre_ and there it stays. This can be called a horror flick in its truest form - gnawing dread permeates throughout. But don't expect a splatter-fest - it's not. This is low budget indie at its absolute best. Lack of budget is more than compensated by superb scripting and performance. This is what really sets it head and shoulders above the "stream of consciousness" indie crap that continually oozes out of the film festivals. Despite it's age, it is as pertinent as ever and stands up to regular repeat viewing. If you ever get a chance to see it, do so - but also note, the less you actually know about this film, the greater your experience will be. Definite keeper.

I saw this movie in the early 90's and thought it was a good. The Scene of Graham Greene skinning the strip mine owners' leg was haunting. I'm a fan of Graham in many of his TV and movie appearances from Thunder Heart to Red Green Show. I wish I could buy this on DVD and in July I contacted HTTP://www.northernartsentertainment.com Larry Jackson and he wrote me saying Northern Arts Entertainment was thinking of Releasing the movie on there web site as a download that you can burn to a DVD and print art work and make your own DVD of it. Larry said it would be on the HTTP://www.iarthouse.com/ in August of 2008. Sadly it has not shown up and Larry no longer answers my emails. Maybe if others who want to have this on DVD you can go to the iarthouse site and call the 1800 number 1800-811-4515 and mention that you would like to see the Clear cut on the site or ask to speak to Larry.

This film was worth a 7 to me because I loved how Arthur threw his weight around with Peter and Bud. Arthur only behaved that way with them because he needed to teach a very valuable lesson on how nature can never be tampered with. Obviously Bud and Peter never saw it that way nor did they see things from the Native perspective the way Arthur did. Since Bud never cared one way or another what happened to the trees because he was the papermill manager. He only cared about profiting from those trees so he needed them to be cut down. Peter's problem was that he was trying to take both sides of the issue to try and please Arthur and Bud. Since Peter was a lawyer it was his intuition to see things from all sides. Although the Natives lost the court case, Peter however did try and smooth things out and ease the tension for everyone involved and for that, I give him credit. But it was from Arthur's viewpoint that makes this film so cool. The important lesson needed to be taught to the other 2 men. Since Arthur rightfully committed those acts of violence towards Bud, Peter and those police officers because that was really the only way the situation was to be handled. If Arthur was just a regular human, he may have put up a fight but I don't think he would have gotten away with the things he did. He just would have been arrested and put away as "just another Indian who's only place is in jail". Ironically enough, Bud and Peter were arrested by police at the end of the film. Wow, what wrong have they done to society?? LOL The 2 men felt like THEY were the victims of the whole ordeal, not Arthur! LOL Well............ anyways............ thanks for allowing me the time to review on this film as well. Take care. ;)

Arthur is the spirit-guide Peter McGuire finds during his sweat-lodge vision; a water-spirit who becomes the personification of McGuire's own anger. If you don't believe me on this, pay attention to the water shots (starting with the opening shot of the movie), the sweat-lodge sequence, and listen carefully to almost everything Wilf says. Once you understand what Arthur is, you can see that the primary themes explored are (1) talk vs. action, and (2) if you cannot control your anger, your anger will control you. I found Ron Lea a bit too wimpy to carry off the final scene, but overall, this is a very thought-provoking movie, which I recommend to anyone who likes to think.