In the stunning film “War Pony”, strivers such as Natives and dreamers alike trek across the parched terrains of the Pine Ridge Reservation in hopes of catching a glimpse of a new life- an aspirational tale with persistent perseverance at heart. It highlights the constant struggle they face at their level. To get a full picture of the issue within the Oglala and Sicangu Lakota citizens of the Rosebud and Oglala Sioux tribes, you first have to consider the broken treaties from the past which greatly affect them today.
Before “Reservation Dogs” and “Wild Indian” came Chris Eyre’s “Smoke Signals,” the only notable mainstream film produced by Indigenous creatives. Likewise, one can think of countless other examples of white people appropriating Indigenous culture for artistic or commercial purposes. It appears to be the case, at first blush, that another white outsider is imagining Indigenous history with two white filmmakers behind the scenes in “War Pony.”
Such assumptions are ones that Gammell and her co-director Na Rily Keough would want to keep at bay. The beginnings of the film are from Riley’s days in American Honey, where he met the two extras who later become the co-writers of “War Pony”, Bill Reddy and Franklin Sioux Bob, who told us their Rez stories. These together helped inspire the trio and Gammell to write their feature. The fruits of their exchange are in my eyes an immersive but deeply cliched mix of magic and neorealism.
I would like to note the lively first-time actor Jojo Bapteise Whiting portrays the character of Bill, who just turned 23. Twentysomething years old Bill is currently an alpha male who has a wife, a couple of toddlers, and no job. His baby mama, who is currently in jail, needs 400 bucks for her bail. Bill pulls a few tricks and hustles.
Capitalists are gleeful that Tim’s wife captures a thin white woman with the same beefy build as a Native American woman. Before he employed Bill, Tim, without a tinge of guilt had sexual relations with Indigenous women and finally got down to work on procreating with Bill’s poodle.
His first step into the hustle was purchasing a poodle from a seedy character for breeding purposes, although the intention was to fetch extravagant money. Then came the intentions of his master scams, which were to compromise and mooch off the profits of the severely deluded. Bill’s most shameless attempt came when he seized the opportunity of scraping the and seeing the idiotic Tim Hollander himself marooning his new buyer truck pickup with the intention of cheap selling him and attempting to pawn off his vehicle and gaming console.
Also featured in the film is LaDainian Crazy Thunder starring as Matho, an orphaned child who has surrendered to the domestic abuse inflicted by a drug-addicted father. Throughout his life, Williamson tries to refocus his mindset, wherever his classmates and peers have seemingly hit life’s ‘potholes’ the deepest. Wrapping into the novel revolves around Bill showcases the crux of the issue of why Jonas and Matho were not intertwined on biogenetic relations but were younger direct opposition.
When Matho starts living in abandoned buildings and shifting from temporary accommodation, suffers abuse, and is forced into drug dealing, you can guess that these are all challenges that Bill has already faced a long time ago.
Now and then, the transitions in their stories might be a bit abrupt, as if you are watching two different films instead of one that contains multi-faceted narratives. Towards the end of the film, their long-expected encounter heads into more or less obvious territory, although I did like the understated direction and how calming it was.
“War Pony” transcends to a cathartic level through the strengthening of communal ties. It powerfully comes to light during a funeral scene where a parade of snakeside cars curves through the beautifully endless plains behind them. The second time is towards the end, where the filmmakers mix images of buffaloes and turkeys to exhibit chaos, symbolizing revenge against capitalism.
However, these examples are extremely rare and scarce in a movie that revolves around trauma. It has been discussed many times that their existence is purely superficial. Some of these lives are unexplainably disturbing. In this case, asking for a pretty picture to be drawn over the sad reality can be classified as superficial. Reddy and Sioux do seem to mimic the cliched Black gangster dramas of the 1990s, but the inner city surrounding “War Pony” speaks much differently. Towards the end, the viewers may feel as if the film is full of unwed mothers immersed in cruelty and extreme socioeconomic divide. The desire to escape from these lives is what makes the movie’s depiction of reality so powerful.
Perhaps, that’s what capturing the claim of a large number of first-time fillers and locals implies.
Alongside that premise, as transcendent and fluid as “War Pony” may be, an outside view will continuously reveal that its people’s plight will never appear plausible.
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