Black Cloud represents both the name of the title character as well as the emotional atmosphere that permeates most of the film. Black Cloud (Eddie Spears) is an American Indian on an Arizona reservation who’s become a spectacular boxer under the tutelage of Bud (Russell Means). When he’s given a chance to go to a tournament that will lead towards the boxing finalists for the U.S. in the Olympics, he declines it because of his hatred towards America and the white man.

Eventually Black Cloud softens because of a discovery of a valiant white man in his own heritage and begins to turn his life around. This climax is odd though, because it leads to a sudden shift in character without allowing us to really understand how Black Cloud is feeling. In fact, the whole film has a fairly rough script, including a lot of choppy dialogue that could have used a good deal of polishing. Perhaps the biggest problem is that, even after Black Cloud’s transformation, we never come to really care for him. Black Cloud is initially set up as such a distasteful character, we needed a more significant attitude change to root for him the way the film wants us to in the end.

In a Q & A session after the screening, actor Russell Means told the audience that lead actor Eddie Spears spent two months training for his boxing scenes with the legendary Jimmy Gambini, who also trained actors for Rocky. The training shows. The boxing scenes amount to the most finely filmed portions of the film, creating an intensity that’s on par with the best boxing movies. On the other hand, Spears should have spent more time training for the traditional acting. His overall performance just wasn’t strong enough to carry the film, which ended up creating a lot of jilted scenes. Perhaps it was the directing though – a lot of the performances felt off key.

While expressing his vision of American Indian rights, Means explained that, “The reason I did this movie is because, when I read the script, it portrayed us [American Indians] as human beings.” Means went on to explain that while most Hollywood movies use “terrible stereotypes” in their depiction of American Indians, Black Cloud was “very accurate” in its depiction of the people.

Well, I’m happy for him that the depiction is accurate. Means must be proud of the fact that American Indians are lazy drinkers who drive big trucks, because that’s how they were depicted. Similarly, the film itself, whether in the script, direction or acting, offers little to be proud of.

Year: