Ethnicity in Film Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Ethnicity in assume - Essay ExampleThis film was significant on a number of levels. It was a major Hollywood release budgeted that brought in a box office of 23 million dollars and yet it managed to honestly draw off the events of a highly politically charged event. It also examined the complexity seeking self identity in a group long persecuted in examining a constituent played by Val Kilmer who was at betting odds with his essential heritage preferring to deny its existence and through the events of the story showed the self discovery of racial primp and identity of this character. This paper will explore the issues and themes raised by the film as they relate to the portraiture of native culture. It will examine how the film showed the fight for ethnic identity in the face of outside pressures that argon often hostile. This illustration of the complex nature of racial identity and political context are further heightened by the political context of the story. It will also hi ghlight how the quest to depict native American ethnicity on film is still occasionally marred by stereotypes.The quest for identity for the sponsor is the main theme of the story. Val Kilmers character Ray Levoi is of part Sioux descent and at the onset of the film he strongly denies his heritage. He does not talk about his heritage to his superior played by lordly actor and playwright Sam Shepard. He is shown to have become mainstream with his fashionable haircut and designer sunglasses and formal clothing. His initial contact with the people of the reservation his shown to be officious and unfamiliar. Grahame Greenes character,Walter Crow Horse who plays the town sheriff. does not like the intial presentation but something in him senses the inner conflict in the character. There is a mark tension in the character who is referred to as the Washington Redskin in hushed tones to refer to both his heritage and to his remarkable success in the bureau up to that point. With his suc cesful mainstream background Ray Levois character sees the events of the offensive activity that he is sent to investigate through the official outlook of his boss. Slowly through the Graham Greenes character he awakens to his own heritage. After the intial presentation of the character there are series of events and individuals that slowly variety his perspective on the purity of his own reasons for being there. The intitail reason for trip to the Reserve by the FBI is to enamor Jimmy Looks Twice a chararcter who is believed to have murdered some FBI agents and is on the lam in the reservation. apart(predicate) from the steady tutelage of the town sherrif it is the idealisitc young teacher, Maggie Eagle Bear who appears to do the most to sway the protagonists thinking. She is heart-whole and intelligent and she speaks to him of the real injustices that are going on in the book. The look at the poverty on the reserve is not spared in Apteds honest cinematography. She speaks to him at an educated level which he has come to lever from his own successes but unlike him she has not turned her back on her heritage. More than this, Rays character sees her form kindness and lack of rancor and it moves him. From this encounter on, Ray starts to question his own motives for being on the reserve and