The Phoenix bus station was played by the former Spokane Greyhound station at Sprague Avenue and Madison Street (a building now owned by Cowles Real Estate Co., a subsidiary of Cowles Co., which owns The Spokesman-Review). Dry Falls, at Sun Lakes-Dry Falls State Park near Coulee City, for instance, stood in for Arizona. Other scenes were shot in Eastern Washington. “Smoke Signals,” which had a budget of $2 million, was mostly filmed on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation, with locations in Plummer, Worley, DeSmet and Tensed. The film won a number of awards when it was released, including a special commendation from the National Board of Review for achievement in filmmaking, an award for actor Adam Evans from the Independent Spirit Awards and two prizes from the Sundance Film Festival, the Audience Award and Filmmakers Trophy for Eyre. His 2007 young adult novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian” won the National Book Award for young people’s literature.Īlexie, who lives in Seattle, has largely withdrawn from public life since allegations of sexual misconduct became public earlier this year. “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” published in 1993, was a finalist for the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for new fiction, and won the Washington State Governor’s Writers Award, now known as the Washington State Book Award. While Alexie pulled from several of the stories in adapting his book for the screen, the story “This Is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” is the film’s primary source.Īlexie, a Spokane Indian who was raised on the reservation in Wellpinit, is an acclaimed poet and novelist. “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” features 22 interconnected stories that tell the stories of the people of the Spokane Indian Reservation.
Eyre presents an inviting, affectionate and witty look at contemporary Indian lives,” she wrote, while concluding, “Though this is very much a first feature, ‘Smoke Signals’ shows colorful style and a wisdom beyond precocity about its setting and its people.” And it needs no dispensation for novelty: it stands beautifully on its own merits. The New York Times’ Janet Maslin praised the film, too: “Here is a first feature from Chris Eyre, a 28-year-old Cheyenne-Arapaho filmmaker, that has an American Indian cast and outlook. “Those seams reveal the scenarios of everyday life on the reservation, portrayed in Alexie’s trademark mix of comedy and tragedy.” It’s what occurs in the seams that gives ‘Smoke Signals’ its power,” he wrote in 1998. “The straightforward plot, like Alexie’s books and stories, is not as important as the film’s texture.
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In his review, former Spokesman-Review movie critic Dan Webster acknowledged the film’s ragged, indie-flavored edges, but found much to admire. The top-billed cast was rounded out by established Native actors Gary Farmer (“Powwow Highway,” “Dead Man”), Tantoo Cardinal (“Dances With Wolves,” “Wind River”) and Irene Bedard, who voiced Pocahontas in the animated Disney feature, among her many credits. The film follows estranged friends Victor Joseph (Adam Beach) and Thomas Builds-the-Fire (Evan Adams) as they road-trip to Arizona to retrieve the ashes of Victor’s father, who had left his family years before. Directed by Chris Eyre, “Smoke Signals” was set on the Coeur d’Alene Reservation and filmed in North Idaho, Spokane and Eastern Washington. The film was heralded as the first feature film to be written, directed and co-produced by American Indians.
“Smoke Signals,” the 1998 independent film written by Sherman Alexie based on his acclaimed story collection, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” was named to the National Film Registry on Wednesday by Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. A film made in Spokane and the Inland Northwest now has a place on the list of the most important movies made.
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