Barking Water and Movie Day

My favorite movie of the ones we’ve watched was definitely Sterlin Harjo’s Barking Water. The movie had a definite plot: Irene takes Frankie on a road trip to his daughter’s house so he can see his newborn grandson and make amends with his daughter before he dies. Regardless of this journey plot, I felt the movie was almost completely character based, with the plot just setting up the opportunity to understand Frankie and Irene. I felt the actual purpose of the journey was beside the point. I have trouble watching plot based movies, since I feel I am just waiting for a particular event to happen the entire time – it usually feels like a waste of two hours. I like character based movies because I like learning about individuals. People don’t have a point to them, and understanding a person isn’t like waiting for the end of a story. Barking Water was the first movie I watched without getting bored since Crash four years ago. The way the movie was organized appealed to me, too. I thought Barking Water was like a movie equivalent to As I Lay Dying by Faulkner. Both are journey stories where the purpose of the journey is unimportant. The end of As I Lay Dying introduces a character that has not been mentioned nor had any importance to the book at all, while the trip between Mississippi and Alabama reveals the depth and true identity of the characters involved. As I Lay Dying also has a forward progression to the plot, but it skips back in time whenever necessary to add an important insight into the characters. Barking Water did the same thing. By the end of the movie, my eyes were not dry (I don’t think anyone else’s were either). I have never felt so much empathy for any characters in a movie – the last time I cried from a movie was The Lion King when I was seven. Barking Water was an amazing movie; I’ve already recommended it back home, and I’m going to keep up with Sterlin Harjo’s work, no doubt.

I enjoyed the other two movies as well. Four Sheets to the Wind felt very real to me – I have not yet seen a Sterlin Harjo character that seemed fabricated or overdone. Doe Boy was a very interesting concept that was well executed. Of all the movies, though, Barking Water hit me the hardest because of its appeal to humanity and because we all understand loss very well, though I think we wish we didn’t. Again, the extent of my feelings about the movie is impossible to express in words.

The movie day was one of the most rewarding and worthwhile experiences I have had so far in this program.