Tuesday, October 1, 2013

Crooked Arrows



Best Sports Movie Since Miracle!
Crooked Arrows takes the oft used Mighty Ducks style of sports movie to another level. The overall skeleton of the story is what you would expect. Misfit team thrown together with unpopular, unmotivated coach manages to come together to win in the end. It is how the journey takes place that sets this film apart. Crooked Arrows delves into the rich history of lacrosse and native American culture. The history and philosophy is both accurate and respectful. The theme of the movie is "respect the game," and Crooked Arrows does just that.

Through all this, the comedic timing of these athletes is impeccable. As with Miracle, it would have been much more difficult to teach actors to play lacrosse than to teach lacrosse players to act, so that's the way they went. As a result, the lacrosse action is both accurate and spectacular. They brought in the same sports photography experts that created the intense action of Miracle to recreate that here. You will feel like you are...

Beautiful Lacrosse!
My whole family waited for this movie to come out in theaters, and we ALL loved it! Besides being a great underdog-wins-out sports flick, this movie touches on a lot of other important topics as well, including the rights and heritage of Indigenous Peoples, class rivalries, and personal honor and responsibility, and it does so without an overbearing or moralizing feel. There are a few tongue-in-cheek jokes that only true laxxers are likely to get, and a lot more humor for everyone else to share. A must-see for all youth lacrosse players, this movie is a treasure for the entire family. Spread the game!

Straight Forward for Crooked Arrows
The way the story is told, about a sport established LONG before any Spanish, French, or other non-indigenous peoples stepped foot on this continent makes this film have a richness grounded in a tradition most of us have no clue about.
Beautiful in it's simplicity. Rich in it's uniqueness. Unless the day comes that someone makes a LaCrosse movie on a Res by a native, with only natives in it, you will not get a more inside view of where the sport comes from, and how unique the culture behind it is.
Anyone cynical enough to call this a "typical feelgood movie" needs to examine themselves. There is nothing typical about this movie.
There are not enough movies told from the native viewpoint. That in itself makes this movie out of the norm. I am NOT a Native American, but it sure is something worth wishing for.

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