Critical Analysis Of The Film Adaptation Of Richard Wagamese’s Novel Indian Horse

Indian Horse is a fictional novel written by Canadian Ojibwe author Richard Wagamese. Set in Northern Ontario in the late 1950s and early 1960s, it follows protagonist Saul Indian Horse as he uses his extraordinary talent for ice hockey to try and escape his traumatic experiences at St Jerome’s Residential School. The film, an adaptation of Richard Wagamese’s novel, serves as an intense, if sometimes heavy-handed, commentary on the terrible legacy of Canada’s resident school system. Although there are some lovely performances from the actors in the film, for the most part, the cast fails to support the weighty material and the spirit carried on in the original book Indian horse. But as an audience, it’s fair to understand that the majority of the narrative discussed in the novel by Wagamese, is very difficult to visually interpret in the span of 1 hour.

Most of us know something about the country’s century-long history of forcibly removing native children from their homes and housing them in catholic church-run educational institutions. In the film directed by Stephen Campanelli and executively produced by Paula Devonshire, Saul the protagonist, is overshadowed by the system before he even enters St. Jerome’s Residential School at age 8. Both his mother and father are school survivors which makes them less forgiving and more protective of their two sons, Saul and Benjamin. The scenes inside the school are often harrowing, but what was in my opinion an utter disappointment, is that I think the horrific conditions of the school and the students as well as the teachers Saul encounters, was not significantly impactful as it should be. For instance, when Saul meets Sister Ignacia in the film, I noticed her image was not exactly portrayed as in the novel. In chapter 11 of the book, it says when Ignacia smiles, her face looks cold and cruel and you can see the deadly evil in her eyes. But her visual representation in the film was far more relaxed though she did do mean things to the kids and her facial expressions didn’t quite cut what Saul feels and saw written in the book. Wagamese also writes that instead of talking to his peers, Saul stays by himself at all times. His only comfort is reading. Even though the books are written in Zhaunagush, they allow him to temporarily escape form the confines of the school into the world of his books. But reality in the film, it does not have any scenes where Saul is continuously drawn into the world of reading, emending the true signifancance in which shapes the protagonist’s character. Yet these parts compared from the book to the novel may be small details, it can change one’s perspective of the film, especially if you’ve read the novel beforehand.

Thankfully for little Saul, he is introduced to Canada’s national sport, ice hockey. Under the guidance of Father Gaston, Saul is put into the school’s team and plays in a series of local leagues. He turns out to be very good at the sport, with Saul noting that “the game gave me survival.” Fast forward to Saul in the teens. He plays for the hockey team ‘Moose’ introduced by Fred Kelly and meets his new teammates. On the contrary to the book, the Moose seem pretty excited to meet Saul and welcome him with open arms. In the novel this scene wasn’t as “easy” as it showed for Saul to join the team. Saul is much smaller and younger than the players much like the lower class of the “caste system” if you will. Furthermore, he was beaten with words because of his size but later on gained respect with his phenomenal talent. As a film viewer, I was very much confused as to why the director chose not to add this aspect to his film and why he merely focused on the positive aspects of being on the Moose team rather than the difficulties and hardships Saul faced trying to fit in with the team. Another difference to the film I must add is the Indian leagues the Moose played in were never shown nor acknowledged and the scenes skipped right away to the A Leagues against white teams.

One of the film’s most pleasingly realistic touches is that, despite all his talents, Saul finally doesn’t manage to become a hockey star, weighed down as he is by his difficult childhood and the fact that white people continue to see and treat him differently than his non-aboriginal peers. Quite the contrary, towards the end of the film it reveals that Gaston was also a sexual predator, completely changing what we thought we knew about the priest and retroactively putting a completely different spin on his leave-taking apology. It’s clear to say that the director wanted a late-in-the-game narrative shocker, but there’s no need to reveal Father Gaston’s true nature only years after Saul left the school. And since it arrives this late, it also makes it impossible to examine in any detail how Saul feels about Gaston, who sexually abused him but also made it possible for him to find and then practice his passion.

Perhaps the camerawork is the standout technical contribution throughout the film, charting Saul’s growth from child to broken young man in images that respect his difficult journey without turning them into pretty pictures for the eye’s sake. May I also acknowledge the voiceover commentary that adds that emotional connection to the book and movie much preferred over conversations between characters. The three actors who portray the role of Saul Indian Horse in the course of 30 years - Sladen Peltier, Forrest Goodluck and Ajuawak Kapashesit are no doubt uniformly terrific at bringing Saul to life. But in my opinion, the narrative would be better served by reading the novel to understand and really connect with Richard Wagamese’s writing of past Indigenous historical experiences.