Black Cloud

I saw this movie last night at the Nashville Film Festival. It was a surprisingly good movie. Young Lakota actor, Eddie Spears, does an excellent job with the lead as "Black Cloud." Russell Means, his boxing mentor "Bud", is wonderful. This movie evokes obvious parallels to the original "Rocky" but has a lot more depth regarding the young man's personal demons and his place within his Native American heritage and the problems of the modern reservation.

The movie is romantic, inspiring, funny and sad and delivers many truths about reservation life and the challenges of Indians who want to rise above the difficulties they face. Rick Schroder's screenplay is very good.

Steve Gainer's cinematography is stunning. There are some wonderful scenes of horses and the outdoor beauty of the Navajo Reservation.

Julia Jones, as Sammi, is convincing and a real cutie.

Country singer Tim McGraw debuts in this film as the Sheriff. He is good in the role.

Some of McGraw's songs are in the movie and, one is delivered very humorously in a Karaoke scene. The end credits roll behind Pat Green's "Wave on Wave."

Schroder is a "bad guy" in this movie and did a convincing job. He revealed he stepped into that role at the last minute because the original choice for the part was a rodeo cowboy with no experience who apparently "froze" when they were trying to shoot his parts.

The acting is quite good even though many of the actors are young and unknown to most audiences.

Rick Schroder was present at the screening I saw. He and Eddie Spears, Julia Jones and Director of Photography Steve Gainer graciously answered questions from the audience following the screening. They all showed considerable class and humility. I was very glad to have been to see the movie and heard the principals discuss their roles more in depth.

Schroder mentioned this movie was made for about a million dollars which is ridiculously low by Hollywood standards. The high quality of the finished movie does not reflect its modest budget and Schroder says that is because it was a labor of love by the participants. It is obvious he is right.

I highly recommend this movie.

This movie is definitely worth seeing. It is a very interesting mix of "Rocky" meets a "Western". A friend of mine saw the film in Montana last week and told me the crowd was blown away as well. I heard they made it for a million bucks. WOW. Tim McGraw is very good as the sheriff. Rick Schroder has ton's of talent as a writer and a big future directing. He was just nominated for a CMA award for best country music video. The girl is hot in the movie. I give it a big thumbs up. Peter Greene is the best I have ever seen him. He was the guy in the mask. Wayne Knight plays a creepy part as a pervert and is totally believable. The cinematography is incredible and the boxing scenes the most realistic I have ever seen.

I think the movie could have been better. For a native American movie, I think they were sending out the wrong message about Indians again. Not everybody rides horses and lives like the old days "Me-no-like-white-man". I think all the reservation life scenes from the movie we're especially sending out the wrong message. There were definitely a lot of clichés. I could identify with some of the stuff happening in the movie, but i still think it should have been at least guided by a real Navajo while shooting the movie. Overall- the movie was okay and if you like boxing movies you should watch this. If you're looking for a movie about present day native Americans, this is not the one.

I loved the visual beauty of the film. The Navajo country in northern Arizona where this film was made is indeed spectacular. I have never seen a photographic work presented with more drama. However, it is not just a "pretty film". It is an honest film. Even the ugliness and poverty is stunning. It is truth telling. Equally impressive is the soundtrack. The two work together to create a piece of art of which Ricky Schroeder can be justly proud. The story is a kind of "Rocky" that will appeal to young and old alike. It is not only inspirational but also rewarding insofar as the protagonist resolves personal issues and matures. I saw this film in my hometown of Payson, Arizona, where it premiered last week. I also happened to be in the theater when the cast arrived for that premier. If I had known then what I know now, I would have given them all a "thumbs up" for a terrific entertainment.

I just returned home after seeing this movie at the Boston Film Festival. I really like movies from Independent to blockbusters. I like all types of genres. I really wanted to like this before I saw it, but it really fell short in my mind.

This movie is about a young Native American from the Navajo tribe who fights in and out of the ring. He has a short fuse and struggles with the fact that he has "white" man blood in him. He really hated the white man for what they did to his people and felt like he had tainted blood. He is on a road of destruction if he lets these fears engulf his life. The question is will he build on the good of his life and grow or let these fears destroy him? I guess you will have to check it out if you really want to know.

I didn't mind the movie, but it really wasn't something I was interested in.

There was plenty of pour acting. There were parts of the film that received laughs from the audience even when laughs weren't what they were going for. You see Wayne Knight (Seinfeld's Newman) as a scumbag. I was like, "It's Newman! Man did he loose weight."

Like I stated it's a low budget movie and with that comes many problems. I have a lot of low budget movies in my DVD collection. I just couldn't connect to this one. There were some funny parts. Black Cloud's father and friend (Jimmy) were funny at times. I just think the movie fell short. It was written by, directed by, and starred Ricky Schroder. I hope he does better the next time. This is not a knock to the people who liked the film; I personally did not find it a good one. The small crowd that attended tonight's showing didn't seem to like it much either.