Medicine River

                This movie, “Medicine River” seems to be made for a Native American audience as well as a general audience.  Yes, there were many things in it that only people with a Native background could understand, but it also was evident that anyone could understand it.  The main character, Will, is a normal man in society in Toronto, Canada.  He is a professional photographer that travels the world taking pictures of wars.  It is almost as if he is as clueless to things that they do on the reservation as we are as a non-Native audience.  We are kind of “walking into” the same sort of situation of cluelessness as he is, and get to gain a better understanding of the reservation and its people as he does.  However, on the other hand it is still shown that Will does remember certain things about living on the reservation.  He seems to think about his mother a lot, and this brings back memories to him of when he actually lived there.  It probably also has more significance to the Native American culture when Will travels all the way to the old woman’s house down in a canyon across a river just to take her picture and hear her story.  That is not something that is generally done in Western culture.  I am mostly siding with the idea that this was made for a split audience though, and it portrays that well.

                Another important aspect to this movie besides the intended audience would be the role that women portray.  It is evident that women are very independent in this movie.  The most obvious example of this would be Louise.  Louise gets pregnant, but tells Will straight up that she doesn’t want to get married, or a man to help her take care of her child.  She wants the child by herself.   I think this shows how courageous she is because most women would dread the fact of being a single parent.  Louise also never seems like she is upset about anything, like when Will’s “boss” came to visit him.  She is so level-headed and strong on her own, that not one little thing will upset her.  Another example of women independence is with the old lady that lived down in the canyon.  She is very old but still lives by herself and supports herself.  She is very wise and has a stable head on her shoulders as well.  It is apparent that woman steal the show in this movie, and prevail as the stronger, more independent characters.