Exploring The Themes Of The Indian Horse Movie: A Review
The Indian Horse Movie by Stephan Cappellini inspired by the book of Richard Wagamese is a great film that caught my eye. This film brought to light the conditions and several problems of residential schools in Canada. It shows us the journey of Saul Indian Horse, a young Canadian First Nations boy who survives the Indian residential school system to become a star ice hockey player. The purpose of these residential schools was to eliminate all aspects of Aboriginal culture. Students had their hair cut short, they were dressed in uniforms, and their days were strictly regimented by timetables. Boys and girls were kept separate, and even siblings rarely interacted, further weakening family ties. It is very publicized and well documented that America was built on the back of black slaves.
There's lots of talk about slavery and how awful it was but a lot of people don't know that Canada has a very dark past when it comes to its natives and indigenous people with residential schools. Firstly, let us know that these schools were a real thing, they would take native kids away from their family and would try to assimilate their culture. The Schools were run by a Catholic priest and if any of the aboriginal kids stepped out of the line, speak in their native language or do anything that is considered blasphemy. They’re either suffering, molested, starved and mistreat in every single way. If there were caught escaping the residential school they would have been placed in a dog cage as a punishment. Sadly, this actually happened from about 1800 to 1996. It is known that thousands of native kids died in those schools, some deaths were not even documented. If you were lucky enough to be one of the survivors and leave when your about eighteen, then you would most likely live a life of discrimination, racism, PTSD and would turn to drugs or alcohol and you would live a pretty terrible life which is the life of Saul our main character.
This is a story that a lot of people don't know about. I didn't know about residential schools until last year and I'm from Canada. The only escape for little Saul is in Canada's greatest sport Hockey. In the movie, we see Saul shoveling the ice when he was a little kid and falling in love with the game, it was truly magical. When I was watching the film, I noticed that Saul was very good at hockey, he had that determination to be a prominent hockey player. It even looks like he can make it to the NHL someday. However, he plays on an all native team and even when he becomes a part of the Toronto Monarchs which were a farm team for the Toronto maple leafs at the time he faces constant discrimination not only from his teammates but from the referee, the crowds and people in the town. He later on turns to drugs and alcohol. It’s truly a sad and depressing movie.
The author uses imagery for example when Saul was taken away from his grandmother, and he was brought to a residential school where they take away his culture by cutting his hair and forbidden him to speak native language. This scene really made me sad. The author also made the movie a very sad and depressing mood. For example, Saul never gets to go to the NHL and he turns to drugs and alcohol which is very sad and depressing because he had so much potential. The author also used irony, watching the movie we all taught the priest was a good man, he was always helping Saul and even introduced Saul to a new native family. When Saul was having flashbacks of the residential school I realized that the priest was using Saul for his own satisfaction, I was really shocked when I saw Saul down on his knees giving oral sex to the priest. This was just in general very disturbing and unexpected. It was very ironic you can say. He allowed Saul to play hockey if he satisfied him. In the future, Saul becomes a man and meets the priest that took advantage of him, when I watched them meet each other I was like “why doesn’t Saul hug him”?
The reason why is that he is traumatized and doesn’t know wat to do. This was a very weird encounter. Honestly, I have no connections due to the fact that I have never been mistreated nor do I personally know any natives. However, I do understand that this topic is very sensitive for all natives, and we should not take this lightly. I find that the simple apology given by the Canadian federal government was not enough, and that a small “sorry” just cannot take away all the suffering and scars left behind by the ruthless Christians. This can not only connect to just the natives who have been mistreated, but also anyone who has ever undergone any forms of abuse throughout their lives.
The Indian Horse is a film that many aboriginals can relate to. This is a movie that I think everyone should watch especially Canadians in general. The residential schools should be known and remembered. We should learn from our mistakes.
