Once in a while there happens along a piece of art, maybe a book or a song or a picture, in this case a movie, that snaps everything into its place and makes me think “OK, now I get it.”
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This adaptation of Richard Wagamese’s novel sheds light on the dark history of Canada’s Residential Schools.
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There has been a lot of talk the last few years in Canada about First Nations and Aboriginal Peoples. The topic sort of lingers in the air as I hear it come and go in the news. Much as I have no direct experience with Rohingya refugees or South African apartheid, my life did not feel touched directly by the legacy of Indian residential schools in Canada. Sure, I knew that some 150,000 indigenous kids were taken from their families by force, but it seemed about as relevant to my daily life as the battle of Stalingrad or the siege of Sarajevo.
That is, until I saw Indian Horse, the movie.
A grand old Nunnery called The Mount, in Peterborough, Ontario, served as the residential school, but the shoot was challenging: there were times with no heat or light in the old rooms and many of the bathrooms were not in working order. When the weather plunged to -15 the school was an icebox. There were about 50 extras (plus their parents) at any given time, as well as a large cast and crew to keep warm. Heaters blowing in every room and generators running 24/7 could not keep up. But the location was perfect.
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Adapted from Richard Wagamese’s novel, the story of Saul Indian Horse is that of an Ojibwa boy who ends up in one of Canada’s notorious Catholic residential schools in the late 1950’s. He is forcefully separated from his family and his language (as well as his long hair) and subjected to some very nasty abuse by people who should know better. At the school he discovers a love for hockey and turns out to be very good at it. When he finally leaves the school and embarks on a promising career in the game, the ghosts of his past haunt him until he must confront what he went through as a kid. Saul then draws on the spirit of his ancestors and the understanding of his friends to begin the process of healing.
Edna Manitowabe, who played Naomi, Saul’s grandmother, is originally from Wikwemikong, Manitoulin Island. At 76 years of age she had never acted on film before.
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The film is not without humour, like the frozen horse turds he uses instead of pucks. And it can be experienced in different ways at the same time. It deals with two great motifs in Canada: Hockey and Aboriginal Peoples. So on the one hand I cheered for a talented, hard luck kid struggling to make it to the big leagues, while on the other hand experiencing alternating waves of shame, guilt and anger as I was confronted with images of terror and abuse that happened close to home, recently, not far away.
As I watched this movie I started to understand what it might have looked like and sounded like to, as Wagamese put it …
“… pull Indian kids from the bush and from the arms of their people.”
It would have been easier to watch if it had been an NFB documentary something like Nanook of the North. I could have detached intellectually. But Indian Horse swept me up like the full-blown Hollywood-style film that it is (Clint Eastwood is an Executive Producer). I identified with the characters like I did in Brokeback Mountain and The Revenant. It carried me away emotionally and as a result was that much more personal.
This movie brought home to me that this terrible stuff happened in my country and in my time, some of it just down the road from me, here, at this moment. The survivors are still living today, still telling their stories. Indian Horse is one of those stories. Now I get it.
Indian Horse director Stephen Campanelli started his career as a steadicam operator. He has worked with Clint Eastwood and other great story-tellers for over 20 years.
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Killarney Provincial Park at Sunset. – Photo by Rebecca Rogge, courtesy of Ontario Parks
Killarney Provincial Park produces spectacular fall colours and the Indian Horse crew raced with very little prep behind them to capture as much of it as they could. Shooting on the waters around here was a challenge especially on the uneven craggy rocks with special and highly sensitive equipment. The short daylight shooting day meant they were scrambling from start to finish.
This review is making me think twice about actually going to see the movie. I had decided I did not want to hear any more about the harm and atrocities my fellow Canadians inflicted on our native people. When I was in school during the 50’s and 60’s we were not taught anything about what our government and churches were doing to aboriginal kids. I now feel we would all benefit from having a closer look at our “crimes”. Gord Downey would appreciate our interest and caring. Maybe this movie should be shown in our high schools and a copy should be sent to the Pope! Thank you Glenn for your review.
Thank you Steve. Perhaps it will be shown in schools. I think that’s a great idea.
Your review makes me want to go see this film. And, as a Canadian, makes me feel like I should see this film.
Thanks Claire. I hope you love the movie.
Your review of Indian Horse has inspired me to see this film. I also hope that this book/film will be used as teaching tool in high schools. Each generation needs to learn from the mistakes made by the previous one.
I hadn’t heard about the movie Indian Horse, but now I am going to go see it. Excellent review Glenn. Each of the stories I hear about the native schools run by the cruel, racist religious makes me angry and ashamed, but we need to know the truth to prevent such atrocities against any segment of Canadian society again.
Thanks for your comment Pat. Always good to hear from you.
Given my family’s history with residential schools (my great grandfather, Rev JW Tims established the first residential school amongst the Blackfoot in the 1880’s, Anglican, but that was at best just marginally better than the Catholic ones) I feel morally obligated to see this movie, just to see the damage that was done in the name of God
Thanks Doug. We would love to hear more about that situation. Wow.
Gchiimiigwetch for putting forth a good review that truly encompasses the truth of residential schools and how honour did help in healing. My family are from Killarney area and I had many friends work on this movie and I had crew reach out to myself for some insight into some cultural traditions.
This story was well made and it even brought to light more of what my grandfather and his brothers and sisters went through at the hands of the Agents, Police and the so called Priest and Nuns.