RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

MusicChat 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.

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

BelSports This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

proud_luddite Based on the novel by Richard Wagamese: in the 1960s, Saul Indian Horse (played at different times by Sladen Peltier, Forrest Goodluck, and Ajuawak Kapashesit) is an indigenous boy in northern Ontario who is forced into a Catholic residential school where he eventually develops exceptional skills as a hockey player.In addition to successfully focusing on a personal story that reflects probably the worst part of Canada's history (more on that later), "Indian Horse" fascinates in some segments that involve conflicting values. One involves generations of an indigenous family in which an elder practices traditional spirituality while the younger adult generation (brainwashed in residential schools) insists that Christianity is the only acceptable belief system. In later scenes, interpretations of Christianity itself present a conflict in the residential school. On the one hand is a reforming priest who believes in a compassionate approach to the children; on the other is a nun (a true creature from hell) whose approach is literal and uses any means necessary to "Christianize" the children.The film's conclusion is quite touching in its recollection of Saul's difficult past as he tries to come to terms with it.The fact this film was made and distributed (and playing for more than a month in some theatres) is a victory in itself - not only because it is a film of good quality but mainly for frankly addressing some of the worst parts of Canadian history - recent and not so recent. Hopefully, similar stories will be told.

sherimunroe Every Canadian needs to watch this movie to learn of Canada's actual history towards the Indigenous people or as I would say "The First People" of this country. Perhaps if people watched this movie they would get a better understanding of what the government has done to generations of Canada's First People.

gcsman The systemic racism and government-sanctioned damage done by the residential school system in Canada has been much in the news in recent years and deservedly so. This film -- which was just put out in general release in our area a week or two ago, though it made the rounds of film festivals last years and has multiple awards from those -- is a searing look at what was done to native children in one such school, but it's more than just that. From beginning to end it amounts to a pretty comprehensive biography of one man, Saul Indian Horse, from age 6 to middle age, and covering the 1950's through the '80's.One thing that runs through the whole film that really just draws you in unspoken is the ambience of quiet and often stillness -- it's more of an attitude exuding from the First Nations characters in the story than anything to do with the action, but it's something that became evident once we had left the theater.Young Sladen Peltier plays Saul as a boy and he's excellent. The opening scenes show him with his parents, brother, and grandmother living in the wilderness and more or less on the run from the white authorities who are bent on taking the boys away. We see them in stunningly beautiful landscapes and doing just fine. Anyway -- thanks to a series of family tragedies Saul is taken away and the main story starts. It's a chain of deep lows and transcendent highs from there, as Saul survives the brutalities of the school system but finds daily escape in hockey, which he turns out to excel at: on the ice, he's fast, elusive, and a genius around the net. This is his ticket out of the school and on to a series of bigger and better league play. He's strangely standoffish from the teacher who seems to be the most supportive, Father Gaston (Michael Huisman), for a reason that's revealed only at the end (and you can probably guess what I mean). Saul is played at successively older ages by Forrest Goodluck and Ajuawak Kapashesit, who are also right on the mark.But at the level of the Toronto Monarchs (a feeder teem for the genuine big leagues) the relentless abuse from the (then) all-white opponents proves too much -- and although this remains unsaid, his own teammates don't 'protect' him as they would another star player. The inevitable meltdown occurs, he disappears from sight, and falls into the familiar cycle of alcoholism and low level jobs. Finally, meetings with a recovery group bring him back to some level of equilibrium and peace.This story doesn't end like the Jackie Robinson saga. Saul doesn't reach the glory and fame in the major sporting world that he had the talent to gain. The highs and low finally settle somewhere in the middle -- he returns to the only place that he was comfortable, happy, and welcome as a teenager and young man.Clint Eastwood was a co-executive producer for Indian Horse. Apparently he was surprised and shocked that this kind of systemic abuse happened in Canada, which he thought was so civilized and 'polite'. It was everywhere. For one of the Australian takes on the same issue, go back and see Rabbit Proof Fence, which also deeply affected me two decades ago when I saw it. The First Nations are finally more able to tell their own stories.

Ash_Hail_To_The_King_Baby Here are some lovely performances from the younger actors, but for the most part the cast fails to support the weighty material. Director Campanelli (Momentum) and screenwriter Dennis Foon (Life Above All) are clearly trying to pack as much of Wagamese's book into a feature film as possible. But their approach renders most of the secondary characters one-dimensional, leaving actors like Michael Murphy, Michiel Huisman and Martin Donovan struggling to breathe life into bland expository dialogue.The three actors who play Saul Indian Horse over some 30 years of his life - Sladen Peltier, Forrest Goodluck and Ajuawak Kapashesit - are uniformly terrific all others should look into a different field of work, and the film does have its moments. But there's no doubt in my mind that the story would be better served at miniseries length.