Older Than America
The truth of the past come to light in a series of haunting visions in this drama. The strange visions grow more vivid with each passing day, a young woman of Native American heritage begins piecing together a Catholic priests diabolical plot to prevent her mother from revealing the atrocities that unfolded at a Native Indian boarding school.
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- Cast：
- Adam Beach , Tantoo Cardinal , Bradley Cooper , Glen Gould , Wes Studi , Chris Mulkey , Georgina Lightning
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Reviews
Must See Movie...
Good start, but then it gets ruined
It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
This film tells the story of a native American woman who discovers that her schizophrenic mother is actually a victim of a scheme of widespread abuse, torture and a massive cover up at an institutional level.Even after reading the synopsis of the plot, I was still unprepared for the atrocities portrayed in the film. I have little knowledge in native American history, and the events portrayed truly shocks me. I'm sadly reminded of a similar film but set in a different country, "Rabbit Proof Fence". I'm glad to see justice is portrayed, and healing occurs. The plot itself is quite good, it's engaging because it mixes romance with drama and supernatural elements. I enjoyed it.Bradley Cooper's character is a bit redundant and out of place with the plot. It feels as if his character is added to the plot after the plot is written. Anyway, despite the apparently low budget, " Older Than America " is a good film and deserves to be watched.
The main subject of this film i.e. the attempted destruction of Native American culture and identity is a really important subject matter. So why has this been cheapened by using it as the plot to a two bit ghost story?As other reviewers have stated.. the acting is shocking, the dialogue child-like and the plot is all over the place. I am still not sure why the geologist character was in the film at all. At the start he saw a vision of a dead friend of his.. this is never again mentioned as the film progresses. There is a bizarre murder of an official which plays no significance to the rest of the film. The whole thing is bizarre.The money put into this would have been far better spent on creating a documentary examining the real impact of real live characters who were abused by the system featured in the film.As a Brit I know almost nothing about modern native American culture.. after watching this film this is still the case. It just seemed to be filled with as many clichés as I would see in Twilight or other 'fantasy' films featuring Native Americans.
Lets get this out of the way, the movie was just OK. But the story, the history... congratulations to Lightning for helping get this story out. I read many comments about "boarding schools" and "1970s" and the "US." It's important to note that Lightning is Canadian. The truth behind the fictional story presented here is very much Canadian. As is always the case, it was a Canadian story set in the US to sell it better (see ARGO). The residential school system existed until 1996! Alberta, where Lightning hails from, had the greatest concentration of these institutions. The Residential School system is widely referred to as "Canada's Holocaust" due to the cultural genocide perpetrated against First Nations people by various Church organizations and the Canadian government. So again, congratulations Lightning for helping to raise awareness for this important subject. Too bad the truth is so buried below a sub par fictional story and an unnecessary Americanization of Canadian history.
I saw this movie because it was rated 9.5 at this site on April 9, 2010. Minutes into the film, I could tell that this was rating was due only to the subject matter and not the quality of the film itself. The script and acting are mediocre to poor, and the story is predictable from start to finish. If you don't know Native American history, this film should be an eye-opener. If you do, as I did before watching the movie, you will be pleased to see that this important aspect of Native American history was made into a movie. If only it had been made into a movie worth seeing. I could see that everyone involved with the making of the film tried their best, but it didn't work. Very disappointed. 9.5? No, it's just a 5.
